To Learn Their Ways
by JuniperGentle
Summary: When the G-Revolutions' summer is disrupted by the arrival of Gingka and co, how will both sides react? Why don't these newcomers know what a bit-beast is? Why are their blades made of metal instead of plastic? And why are they so afraid of Tyson?
1. The Prologue: By Invitation Only

Yes, a cross-over fic between Beyblade and... um... Beyblade.

I accept that some people dislike one series or the other, but here is not the place to debate this. May I only humbly suggest that you give them both a chance, as I think they both have merit.

This is set one year post-G-Rev, and about two weeks after the fall of Dark Nebula (end of first Metal series), so it's probably best if you know what's happened up to those points. It will occasionally lightly foreshadow events in the second and even third Metal series, more like a "spot the hints" sort of thing for those who have seen it.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I do not own Beyblade in any shape or form, Metal or otherwise. Never have, never will. Just occasionally borrow the characters, that's all.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1 – The Prologue: By Invitation Only<strong>

_In which some visitors arrive_

It wasn't that Tyson resented Mr Dickenson for it, but it was just so... _inconvenient._

He'd been planning to spend the summer out in the mountains at the training centre with Daichi, Kai, Ray and Max, all training together. They would have finally learned how to get on as a proper team, he would have become a real leader of a world-class blading team, there would have been a huge breakthrough in actually getting Kai to _talk_ for once... okay, maybe that was pushing it a bit. But it was going to be so much fun, and now everything had been cancelled.

Because the G-Revolutions had visitors.

It had been just over a year since the fall of BEGA, and the new BBA was gradually finding its feet. Of course, BEGA had been far too big for it to just collapse overnight, even with the hub taken out, and so Mr Dickenson had reorganised it into the Worldwide Beyblade Battle Association, coordinating tournaments all over the globe. The BBA would content itself with the small, local competitions, at least for now.

The WBBA had gone from strength to strength, and in the last year had held thousands of competitions around the globe, with the famous Justice Five team spearheading the effort. Unfortunately, it had seemed that even once Boris had been removed from the equation, there were others within the structure of the new WBBA who were willing to go to any lengths to get what they wanted, and the Dark Nebula organisation had materialised out of the woodwork, rebuilding the old BEGA headquarters and hosting the very first Battle Bladers tournament, with devastating effects.

So devastating, in fact, that several people from Battle Bladers were now without anywhere to stay. In a burst of perhaps rather presumptive compassion, Mr Dickenson had asked the top members of the BBA to host the top members of the WBBA, at least until they had somewhere to go home to.

Which was where Tyson's dilemma had come from. Much as he wanted to go up to the mountains to train, he just _couldn't_ leave fellow bladers in the lurch. So he had accepted, as had Kenny, Max, Hilary, and after a lot of wheedling and pleading, Kai.

That was how they had ended up standing in the airport with only a name to go on, waiting for their visitors to arrive. Kenny had tried to look up information on their visitors, but due to the ongoing investigations into the rise of Dark Nebula, all personal data was so highly classified that even the Chief couldn't get through. Perhaps if he had been able to use Dizzi, things might have been different, but the computer-bound bit-beast had been dormant for a little over two years now, and no-one knew if Kenny would ever manage to get her out, or even if he could.

Tyson frowned at the card in his hand. He knew that the guy coming to stay with him in the dojo was a blader, and that he must be pretty good to be at the top of the WBBA, but what _sort_ of blader was he? Did he have a bit-beast? Was he a natural, like Brooklyn, or would they get to train together? Were they even going to get along in the first place or would he be annoying, like Daichi?

Max poked him in the side. "Hey, Tyson." When the other looked up, he grinned. "Come on. This is going to be great, just you wait. You never know, maybe this'll turn out even better than going to the mountains."

"You've got Ray, at least," Tyson pointed out. The black-haired Chinese blader was staying with Max, mostly because the dojo already contained Daichi, Tyson and Grandpa Granger, and even the serene-natured Ray couldn't handle that much craziness. "All I've got is monkey-boy."

"Look!" Hilary's excited yelp made all of them jump.

"What? Where?"

"There!" And she pointed. "Just coming through the passage now! I think it's them!"

Indeed, a small group of people were walking out of the gates, sticking together in a huddle as they scanned the waiting crowds for names. With a sigh, Tyson held up his card, and saw the eyes of all seven of them latch onto him.

"Yep," he muttered to Hilary. "That's them alright."

One of the group took a step forwards, a boy with bright red hair that stood up around his head, held back by a thick blue band sewn with the emblem of a stylized golden horse head and single wing.

"Tyson... Granger?" The boy asked hesitantly, holding out a gloved hand – a blading glove, Tyson noted absently. "I'm Gingka, Gingka Hagane."

Tyson looked at his visitor, taking in the blazing shock of red hair, the blue pegasus head-band, the two-tailed scarf that looked oh-so-familiar, and felt a smile grow on his face as he shook hands. He could already tell he was going to like this guy. They were going to get along like a house on fire.


	2. Of House and Home

**Chapter 2 – Of House and Home**

_In which Tyson realises just how strange his visitor is_

"And this is my room, but Daichi stays in here too. Whilst you're here, we'll probably all sleep in the dojo, though, 'specially as it's summer." Tyson finished, rounding off the tour of the house. Gingka had been strangely silent through the whole thing, only making occasional polite noises of admiration or acknowledgement. Tyson was beginning to wonder if his first impression of the boy had been wrong after all.

"You know, it's big enough here to hold everyone," he said. "Your friends can come over any time if you want someone familiar to talk to. I... I guess it must be pretty weird, being in a new place and all that."

"Yeah," Gingka sighed, looking out the window at the garden, where the bey-dish sat in pride of place. "Just a bit."

Tyson frowned. This wasn't working. Time to call out his trump card. "Hey, I heard you were really good at beyblading, winning Battle Bladers and everything. Wanna battle?" Battling almost always made things better.

To his utter shock, Gingka shook his head and tore his gaze away from the window. "Not now."

Tyson felt the familiar surge of annoyance that was normally only brought out by Kai, or occasionally Hiro. "What, you don't think I'm good enough? I _am_ three-times world champion, y'know."

"It's not that." For the first time, Gingka met his eyes. "I don't have a beyblade."

"You left it at... wherever you come from?"

A shake of the head. "It was destroyed. In the final battle of Battle Bladers, it won, then just disintegrated. There wasn't even the face-bolt left."

Tyson stood still in shock, temporarily speechless. _Destroyed?_ He couldn't even imagine what it would feel like if Dragoon completely disintegrated – and if the bit-chip was broken...

But Gingka hadn't said _bit-chip_. He'd said...

"Face-bolt? You mean bit-chip?"

"No, face-bolt. The piece that slots into the top of the bey to hold it all together."

"Yeah, bit-chip. Where your bit-beast is."

"What's a... bit-beast?"

Tyson was now beginning to get very worried as well as very confused. How could this guy be so good and yet not know what a bit-beast was? Unless the WBBA competitions were much, much easier than he'd heard. And _face-bolt? _What was that when it was at home?

"Don't you have one? It's a sort of animal spirit kind of thing that powers your beyblade. Look, this is my Dragoon. That's Dragoon there, on top."

Gingka took the blade and looked at it in total confusion. "This is... I can't even recognise half the pieces here," he murmured. "This is completely different to the sort I'm used to."

Dragoon's bit-chip suddenly glowed a brilliant blue, and Gingka dropped the blade in shock. Tyson caught it before it could get damaged, and scowled at Gingka. "Watch it," he growled. "Dragoon's not a toy."

Gingka held up his hands. "I know, I'm sorry. It just startled me is all. I didn't realise your constellation was able to affect stuff whilst it's still. There's not many that can do that – only one that I know of."

"Constellation?" This was so far out of Tyson's comfort zone that he was beginning to wonder if he was dreaming. However, before he could say anything else, there was a loud knock on the front door.

Hilary stood on the doorstep, her two visitors just behind her. Of course, she had been asked to host the sole female member of the team, but she also had the youngest of the team as well, a small boy with bright green eyes and golden-blonde hair. He was now almost hiding behind his female team-mate, until he spotted Gingka, when he grinned and waved.

"Hey, Tyson," Hilary said, walking inside, not even bothering to ask. "Madoka and Yuu have been asking me all these questions about blading that I can't answer. Can you help?"

"I'm not sure," Tyson responded honestly. Five minutes before, he could have said "Yes," with no hesitation, but now everything was beginning to get out of hand.

"Yuu keeps talking about a _Libra,_ whatever that is," Hilary explained as the little group made their way into the dojo. "I asked him if it was his bit-beast, but he just got confused, and Madoka didn't know what a bit-beast was either."

"Neither did Gingka," Tyson mused. "D'you think they're really powerful naturals like Brooklyn, then?"

"Even Brooklyn had Zeus," Hilary frowned. "There's something weird going on here."

Suddenly, Gingka piped up "Yuu, have you got Libra with you?"

"Yeah, here." The blonde-haired boy dug in a pocket and pulled out a yellowish-green beyblade.

"Show Tyson what the face-bolt is – he doesn't know."

Tyson felt slightly irritated. They were making him feel like he didn't know anything, a realm usually reserved for Kai alone. He took the bey from Yuu and examined it closely. Immediately he noticed that it was much heavier than his own blade, either Dragoon Galaxy or his HMS Dragoon, Metal Storm. It was also built in a very strange way, with no weight ring and no apparent attack ring either, just a fusion of the two. It was shaped a lot more like a cone than Tyson's own blade, and just from holding it he could guess that it was built to last for a long time in the dish. In place of the picture of a bit-beast in its traditional circle was a hexagonal piece of metal that seemed to be screwed into the top of the bey. It did have a picture on, though what it was meant to be escaped Tyson entirely. It looked a bit like a bat holding two bowls, and it certainly wasn't a bit-beast.

"What's wrong, Tyson?" Hilary asked, leaning over his shoulder. Then she gasped. "It's... it's so different!"

"Different?" Madoka, the girl from the other team, said. "What do you mean?"

In response, Tyson dug into his pocket and pulled out Dragoon Metal Storm. "This is my beyblade, Dragoon." He handed it over carefully, and Madoka's eyes widened.

"You have no fusion wheel?" she asked. "And where's your performance tip? And the... hey, your face-bolt is weird... what!" And she too dropped the bey as Dragoon's chip once more burst into life.

"Careful!" Tyson snapped, examining his bey for damage. "Sheesh, Dragoon, you're hyper today."

"Okay, okay, time out," Hilary called, waving her hands. "I think we need to get Chief in here to sort stuff out."

"Maybe Kai as well," Tyson muttered. "He knows more about the WBBA than I do – he watched a lot of their battles."

Just then, there was another knock on the door. Hilary opened it to reveal just who they were looking for. "Chief! Glad you're here, we need you to..."

"Tyson, look at his beyblade!" Kenny was almost jumping up and down in excitement. "I've never seen anything like it and I've been collecting data on beyblades my entire _life!_" He dropped a green bey into Tyson's free hand, and Tyson noticed once more the weight of it, before yelping as for the third time that day, Dragoon hummed in his other hand.

"What was that?" The owner of the green bey, pushing in front of Kenny, had his eyes fixed on the blue glow coming from Tyson's blade. "What's that light?"

"That's my bit-beast, Dragoon. He's not normally like this, unless..." Tyson trailed off, realising. "You guys have bit-beasts too!"

"What's a bit-beast?" Yuu asked, the green bey's owner echoing him mere seconds later. Tyson shook his head in total confusion.

"You _have_ bit-beasts and you don't know what they are? Seriously, you guys have some weird blading ideas."

"Huh. Battle me." It wasn't a request from the owner of the green bey, but an order. "Then we'll see who has the weird ideas."

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><p><em>AN - I know, another short chapter. But we get Kyouya vs Tyson next chapter to make up for it - and something rather unexpected turns up..._


	3. Tornado Alley

**Chapter 3 – Tornado Alley**

_In which everyone is very confused_

Tyson could never resist a challenge. But it seemed that even now that there was a battle about to happen, there was a problem. The green bey's owner, whose name was apparently Kyouya, wasn't convinced about the size of the bey-dish in Tyson's back yard.

"You fight in something this small?" He asked. "How do you power up for attacks?"

Tyson looked confused. "This is the standard size bey-dish," he said. "This is what they use in competitions."

"Not in the competitions I'm used to. Yuu, can you do something about it?"

"_Go, Libra! Inferno Blast!"_

There was a catastrophic explosion, and a pillar of light nearly a mile high roared up out of the bey that little Yuu had launched. Tyson yelled in shock and backed away, tripping over the porch and ending up lying on his back on the ground, staring as Yuu's vicious attack stripped away the ground beneath the bey to create a truly gigantic bey-dish. How on earth had he produced so much power without even trying?

"What's goin' on, homies?" Grandpa called from inside the house. "Hey! What you dudes doin', eh?"

"Sorry!" Yuu called back in a voice that managed to sound utterly adorable and utterly innocent at the same time. "We were just making the bey-dish."

Grandpa stuck his head out of the kitchen window. "My home-boy Tyson's already got one of those... oh!" He took in the damage to the ground and his eyebrows went up. "Like _that?_"

"This is the international standard dish with the WBBA," green-haired Kyouya told him, blue eyes fierce. "I've never even seen one that small."

Grandpa looked surprisingly unfazed. "I was going to dig that out soon anyway, lil' bros, so don't sweat it."

Kyouya blinked, but seemed to be able to translate pretty well so Tyson left it. "You happy now you've got your "international" stadium?" he called. "Where I come from, we don't need international-sized stadiums to win."

"Who do you think you're trash talking?" Kyouya shot back. "Using a little stadium like that, your bey can't have anywhere near the power of my Rock Leone!"

_What's a Rock Leone when it's around?_ Tyson thought to himself. _Maybe it's one of those bit-beasts from the rock we fought two years ago!_

"Bigger isn't always better," he grinned. "You'll see when you go up against my Dragoon!"

Kyouya laughed. "You think? Then let's go!"

Tyson slammed his blade into the launcher, fixing his eyes on his opponent and his mind on the place where Dragoon would land. "Three."

"Two." Kyouya let a single pointed fang creep over his bottom lip. This would have shocked anyone, except Tyson, who had lived with Ray for four years.

"One."

"_Let it rip!"_

White and green, the two beys launched simultaneously, Kyouya's running counter-clockwise around the dish, chasing Tyson's with astonishing speed. To dodge, Tyson zipped across the middle of the massive crater and then doubled back on himself, trying to ram the green blade before it could get away.

"Oh, so that's how you want to play, is it?" Kyouya jeered. "Leone, _Lion Gale Force Wall!"_

A tornado whirled up from the green bey, and Dragoon only just avoided being picked up and hurled high into the sky. The winds almost filled the entire dish, and Tyson began to realise that it would have been frankly dangerous to blade in the smaller stadium, judging by the power emanating from the green bey. Clearly these newcomers weren't just boasting when they said they were powerful.

"He's using his special attack already?" Chief gasped from the side, tracking every move of the battle. "Tyson! He wants to end this quickly! Get away!"

Tyson glared at his green-haired opponent. "Trying to beat me quickly, huh? That's not going to work! Go Dragoon!"

The white blade tore across the dish, straight at the whirling wind. Kyouya's eyes never left Tyson's and with less than half a second to impact, Tyson realised that his timing was the tiniest bit off. Dragoon shot into the air, propelled by the violent winds, and vanished with a flash.

"Yeah! Go Kyouya!" Yuu cheered from the side. "You show him!"

But Tyson wasn't done yet. He'd faced tornadoes before; he knew how to deal with them. For goodness sake, he faced them every time he practised with Daichi. The eye of the storm was the one weak spot, and if Dragoon was high enough...

"Dragoon, attack! Go Evolution Storm!"

The incredible height that Dragoon was attacking from only served to accelerate the speed of the second tornado that crashed down from on high, tearing the Gale Force Wall apart in seconds. Hidden by the howling winds, Dragoon roared and charged for the green-shielded lion who growled back in defiance, launching into a run to take on the blue dragon.

"Go Leone! _King Lion Tearing Blast!_" Three tornadoes burst upwards to counter Dragoon's attack, splitting into seven, then ten, then fifteen whirling towers of wind all around the dojo.

"Dragoon!"

And Dragoon burst out of the storm, mouth open in a roar of blue, shining with a blue-white light that blended with Leone's green to make the entire area look like it was underwater. At the same moment, the setting sun shone through the clouds, bathing the scene in red-yellow light, turning Leone's green light blue – and Dragoon's blue to a pale purple.

Kyouya yelled in shock and Leone staggered as his owner lost his concentration. Madoka, Gingka and Yuu all gasped as the massive dragon powered through the renewed tornadoes from the green bey and slammed the lion clear out of the dish. Leone skidded to a halt in front of Gingka as Dragoon swirled his way up to the top of the Evolution Storm and then spun back down into his blade, satisfied with a job well done. Silence held as the blue dragon vanished and his blade sprang back to Tyson's hand, every single one of the visitors staring at Dragoon's owner with horror in their eyes.

"Where... where exactly did you get that beyblade?" Gingka asked slowly, hand automatically going to the empty bey-holder on his hip. "And how the heck did you manage to get L-Drago?"

Tyson frowned. "What's an L-Drago? That was my bit-beast, Dragoon. He's been in my family for generations. And Chief made the blade a couple of years ago, though it's had a few tweaks and upgrades since then. He designed it himself." He gave Chief a smile – Dragoon Metal Storm was still the best of all the designs that the Chief had come up with, and Tyson loved the bey to pieces. But the visitors still didn't look convinced.

"If I was to say the name _Ryuga,_ would you know what I was talking about?" Kyouya asked slowly. Tyson shook his head, which only served to make them all look even more nervous.

"This isn't good," Tyson heard Madoka mutter to Gingka. "If there's more than one, we've got a huge problem on our hands."

"Hey guys!" called a voice from the other side of the garden. "Whoa, Tyson, what happened here?"

"Kyouya! Are you okay?"

"Kyouya, buddy! How'd L-Drago get here? And – hey, where's Ryuga?"

Max and Ray were standing at the gate, staring at Yuu's gigantic stadium. A small boy with short green hair, dressed in a yellow t-shirt, and a much larger boy with his purple hair mostly hidden under a white hat were both sprinting towards Kyouya, who had knelt down to pick up his bey and examine it.

"Kyouya buddy?"

"It's not Ryuga," the owner of Leone said quietly. "It was him."

Tyson stood still as both the green-haired little boy and the white-hatted boy turned to stare at him. "Look, could someone please tell me what's going on? What on earth is an L-Drago, and why do you guys all look so scared? It was just a beybattle, Dragoon won't hurt you."

"That was an awesome bit-beast," Daichi said to Kyouya. "Why did you say you didn't know what a bit-beast was when you have such an epic one? The only other lion beast I know of is Lee's and he's really good."

"And could someone explain the massive hole in Tyson's back garden?" Ray called. "What's been going on here?"

"Maybe you could explain why you've got a beyblade that spins left," Madoka countered, looking up from her computer, and the expressions on the faces of the visitors grew even more horrified. "And why you own another L-Drago when I was almost certain that there was only one, and hopefully now, none."

Tyson felt Max and Ray step to his side, backing him up as Daichi took his place just to Max's left and Hilary stood behind them, glaring. On the other side of the dish, the visitors clustered around Gingka, their stares almost hostile now. Only Madoka and Kenny were left, sitting opposite each other on either side of the dish, ninety degrees to their teams, both with their computers out, analysing the frankly bizarre battle as fast as possible.

Suddenly, Chief let out a yell so loud that both teams jumped. "I've got it!" he shouted. "Of course, it was all because of BEGA!"

"BEGA?" asked Tyson, Gingka, Ray and Kyouya at the same time.

"What's Bey-Ga?" asked the little boy with green hair.

"The organisation that was behind the WBBA a year or so ago, the one that had to be brought down to stop them from taking over the world," Chief said absently, typing very fast on his laptop as he entered the data he needed.

"You mean Dark Nebula?" Kyouya growled. "Look, I know you've got strange names for things here, and I can just about handle _face-bolt _going to _bit-chip_, and even _constellation _going to _bit-beast, _but surely _Dark Nebula_ going to _Bey-Ga_ is pushing it."

"No, no, no," Kenny shook his head, realising he'd confused the issue still further. "BEGA was before Dark Nebula, but they were doing the same thing... guys, I never thought I'd have to say this, but we're going to need Kai. He was inside BEGA, and he knows more about the WBBA than I do. He'll be able to explain this properly."

Tyson and the rest of the G-Revolutions grimaced. "We'll never get Kai to talk, even if we can find him," Max sighed.

"Maybe we should ask Tsubasa?" Madoka suggested, looking up at Gingka. "He _was_ a special agent with the WBBA infiltrating the Dark Nebula, so he might know even more than Yuu."

"You know Tsubasa will never say anything unless he has to," Gingka said. Ray looked towards them, a sudden grin apparent on his face.

"You have one too, huh?" he called.

"What?"

"You have a Kai, someone who goes off on his own and never tells you where he's going or what his real agenda is, never reveals his real power, and appears out of the blue to give you that one bit of cryptic but vital advice you need to win a battle, but otherwise never talks?"

"So you've got a Tsubasa?" the little green-haired boy asked. "Never thought there could be two of them."

"Sounds more like a Kyouya to me," Gingka began, but the owner of Leone suddenly snarled, and Gingka grinned at him. "Who's Kai?"

Ray and Max were exchanging glances. "Who's Tsubasa?"

"Alright, that's enough." The cold voice was enough to make both teams turn as one to look up at the dojo roof, where two figures stood, heavily back-lit by the setting sun. One of them had short, spiky hair, and a long strip of material turned to flame red as its two tails flared behind him in the wind. The other, taller, had long hair that had also turned a strange reddish colour in the light, and a flash of gold at the bottom revealed a metal clasp that held it back, except for two slender strands in front of his ears.

"Kai!"

"Tsubasa!"

The names were shouted together as the two figures jumped athletically off the roof, the long-haired one turning a complete somersault before landing. Both looked up to meet the eyes of their respective teams with golden or violet eyes, silvery grey hair of both blowing in the wind.

"I'll never know how he does that," Tyson said admiringly. Then, slightly louder, addressing the long-haired one, "So you must be Tsubasa?" The other gave a slow nod. "I'm Tyson, I'm Kai's team-mate."

Tsubasa gave a quick glance towards his short-haired companion – who, of course, was none other than Kai Hiwatari. "Alright, it's time we explained. But it's a bit of a long story."

"They're your team, you explain," Kai said shortly, when he noticed the other's look. Tsubasa rolled his eyes, but looked back at his team.

"My name is Tsubasa Otori. I'm a special agent with the WBBA, investigating the Dark Nebula organisation..."


	4. BEGA

A/N – small warning – there is a _lot_ of exposition in this chapter. But it's very important in bridging the gap between the two series. I've tried to make it as interesting as possible.

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><p><strong>Chapter 4 – BEGA<strong>

_In which everyone is slightly less confused, but only slightly.  
><em>

"It all started with the BEGA organisation," Tsubasa said, sitting on the porch. Kai was behind him in the normal Kai position of eyes closed, folded arms, back against the wall. To Tyson's amusement, Kyouya was doing exactly the same thing, except that his eyes were open and fixed on Tsubasa. "BEGA, or the Beyblade Entertainment Global Association, was run by a man called Boris Balkov. It took over from the organisation that was running all the beyblade tournaments at the time, the Beyblade Battle Association, the BBA. But it was quickly discovered that Balkov was only in it for the money and the power, and a couple of bladers got very badly hurt in well-publicised battles. Tyson here and his group of friends called the G-Revolutions decided to challenge Balkov and his team in order to destroy BEGA, which by this time was almost world-wide. Though it was a very close call, they succeeded, and the BEGA central offices were destroyed in the process."

Tyson sighed. "Yeah, we know all this. What has it got to do with all the other weird stuff that's been going on?"

"I'm coming to that, and anyway, Gingka and the others don't know. However, even with the leader taken out and the central offices destroyed, BEGA was too big to be destroyed, and in any case it had a solid structure that worked very well on a world-wide stage, taking blading to heights it had never reached before. So the main structure was left as it was, the only difference being that there was a board of governors to keep an eye on things rather than a single owner, which made things like money and power a rather less tempting prize. It was renamed the WBBA, the Worldwide Beyblade Battle Association."

"What?" gasped Gingka. He had never heard how shady the past of the well-respected WBBA was.

"So... where did Dark Nebula come into it?" asked Madoka, who was typing away rapidly on her keyboard as Tsubasa spoke, filing away all the information, just as Kenny was.

"The plan was that the WBBA could keep things going on a global scale as well as national, with the newly-reformed BBA with Stanley Dickenson at its head being more of a... a training school, I suppose, preparing bladers to join the WBBA once they were good enough."

"Yeah," Tyson agreed, indicating the G-Revolutions. "We didn't join the WBBA, even though we could, because we were teaching the younger ones how to blade properly before they went on to join the WBBA."

Tsubasa nodded, and pulled one knee up to his chest, looping his arms around it and resting his chin on top. His golden eyes seemed to be looking at something very distant. "But Mr Dickenson was worried. He thought that though Balkov was gone, there might still be other people in the structure of BEGA who hadn't been caught, who still wanted the power and the riches that controlling the very best blader could bring. So he secretly trained five special agents to join the WBBA and keep an eye on anything that looked like it could be growing out of control. I was one of those agents, and Kai here was the one who trained me."

"Kai trained you?" gasped Tyson. "So _that's _where he was all of last summer! And I thought he was off rebuilding Dranzer again!"

"It is possible to do more one thing at once, Tyson." Kai didn't even bother to open his eyes.

"Anyway," Tsubasa interrupted before Tyson could respond, and everyone exchanged looks among themselves as they suddenly realised that Tsubasa and Kai had somehow managed to sound almost identical, a terrifying prospect for both teams.

"Are you sure they're not related?" Gingka hissed to Madoka, who shrugged.

"As I was saying," Tsubasa continued, "Kai trained me to be one of the agents, and I was the one who discovered the existence and rise of Dark Nebula. Because of that, I was the one to infiltrate it and try to find out the secret to Ryuga's power. But whilst I was there, I discovered something else."

Kai moved suddenly, surprising those who weren't used to him, and pulled a handful of pieces of metal and plastic out of his pocket.

"It turned out that not only had BEGA been pushing for very strong bladers, they had been developing their own blade design." he said. "It was part of their plan to get everyone involved in BEGA. The old design of blades was quite strong, yes, but BEGA was experimenting with metal beys that had twice the weight, twice the speed, twice the power of the normal design. If they could get them to work successfully, they were planning to introduce them at the bottom level and gradually filter them through the shops so that even if you had a BEGA card, you couldn't get the old parts. It was partly a response to Kenny making the HMS blades, as a matter of fact." Kenny blushed as Kai gave him a rare smile. "You scared Boris, you know."

"It was nothing... Emily and Miguel helped..." the Chief was muttering as Madoka reached out and poked one of the pieces that Kai was holding.

"Hey, these are really weird, guys," she said suddenly. "They're like our fusion wheels, but they're only half the thickness. And what's this?"

"That's an attack wheel," Kai told her. "And that's the bit that connects it to the base."

"That's like a weight disc," said Ray, leaning over. "But it's so small!"

"It's like a huge face-bolt," Madoka commented. She looked up at Kai. "They're halfway between ours and yours, aren't they?"

"Yes," he answered. "That's exactly right."

Gingka, however, didn't look convinced. "Hang on," he said. "I know that the WBBA has only been around for a couple of years, even including the time when it was BEGA. But I've had... I_ had_ Pegasus long before that. And Kyouya had Leone when he was just a child, so BEGA developing them doesn't make sense."

"Yes it does," Tsubasa corrected. "That's the beauty of it. What is it about Pegasus and L-Drago that made them so powerful?"

"They were made from star-metal," Gingka began.

"Exactly. They were made from _metal._ Kenny wasn't the first to discover how to make beys from metal, you see. Didn't you ever wonder why you were able to use such powerful attacks, all of you," Tsubasa indicated the group of visitors "when you seemed to have very similar beys to everyone else? It was because Koma Village learned how to make metal beys a long time before Kenny thought of it. They made a certain number, maybe a hundred or so, including L-Drago and Pegasus, and sold them quietly throughout the centuries as highly prized weapons. Over the years, they have been whittled down to the beys we know now, but have been passed on through families rather than bought from shops. Once the WBBA was set up, they fully developed Boris' design and put them into shops, but they were of nowhere near the quality of the Koma blades. That is why all of you were so capable of beating everyone you came across – because you had Koma blades. That was what Battle Bladers was for; finding all the Koma blades and putting them under the control of Doji and the Dark Nebula."

Tsubasa stopped, and they all stared at him in utter shock. This was incredible news.

"So," said the little boy with green hair, Kenta, "Getting into Battle Bladers was mostly luck, because we had the most powerful blades that had been passed on through our families. The others didn't have a chance."

Tsubasa sighed. "Pretty much. But once Battle Bladers had begun, the true strength of the bladers could be seen, when we started taking on each other, and the Koma blades were all that were there."

"But," said Kyouya slowly, jerking a thumb at Tyson, "How come he's got L-Drago?"

Kai smirked. "He doesn't. Tyson has Dragoon, the ancient Bit-beast of the Wind. Yes, he looks similar to L-Drago, and even spins left like L-Drago, but I assure you that Dragoon is completely incorruptible, though not unbeatable." Only Tyson saw Kai's hand drift to the pocket hidden in his jacket which held Dranzer Metal Spark, a bey of Kai's own design but built by Kenny. It was to this bey that Dranzer had returned in his fully-restored form at last, and Tyson had yet to battle Kai using it. "Bit-beasts and constellations, which you have, are very, very similar, but with some distinct differences."

"Constellations were first caught in the Koma blades," Tsubasa explained, "and once the blades were discovered by others, attempts were made to copy the procedure. Unfortunately, most of them only worked partially, which is what led to the creation of the Dark form of the constellations, like Dark Wolf, Dark Bull and Dark Gasher."

"Doji," Gingka growled.

Tsubasa nodded. "Bit-beasts, on the other hand, exist in nature, and are sentient. They _choose_ to join up with their weapon, in this case, the bey. They are very similar, being animal spirits of great power, but notably they get to choose what they bind with, and often even choose _who_ they bind with."

"Like Driger and Ray!" Hilary exclaimed. "Lee's grandfather chose Ray instead of Lee, but it was actually Driger choosing him!"

"Yeah," Kai said quietly. "The same with Dragoon, and Draciel."

"And Dranzer, of course," Tyson prompted after a second. Kai made no reply. To cover the awkward moment, Tsubasa continued;

"The reason why Leone, Pegasus and L-Drago are especially strong is because at the moment they are paired with bladers that they have also chosen, bladers that they will give their all to, rather than holding back a tiny part of their powers. It isn't a huge amount," he hastily added as Kenta looked at his bey sadly, "And it only really affects them when they're fighting each other, rather than anyone else. But Pegasus, Leone and L-Drago want to fight _for their owners_, rather than doing it just because they want to fight. Do you understand the difference?"

"Sort of," Kenta said. "But Sagittario still likes me, right?"

"Of course!" Gingka exclaimed. "How could he not?"

Kyouya stood up. "Well, you've explained why they have such different beys to us, at least," he said. "So, Tyson, think you can beat me when you don't have the advantage of surprise?"

"Surprise?"

"Yeah, pulling an L-Drago on me."

Tyson frowned. "That's a point, you still haven't explained what an L-Drago is."

Kai reached forwards and plucked Kenny's laptop straight out of his hands. The Chief gave a cry of protest, but Kai ignored him, fingers dancing over the keyboard as he searched for something. "_This_ is L-Drago," he said, and turned the screen around.

A picture of a stationary bey filled the screen. It was white and purple, with an odd pattern of three gold chips around the sides. A stylised dragon with an L beside it filled the centre. As the group watched, it began to spin, slowly enough at first that they could see it rotating left, rather than right as most blades did.

"Of the new-style blades, there's only one that rotates left," Kai told the G-Revolutions. "And that's L-Drago, otherwise known as the Forbidden Bey. An extremely strong blader named Ryuga currently owns it, and nearly plunged the entire world into darkness with it about three weeks ago. It has a dark constellation – like a dark bit-beast I guess - inside, in the form of three dragons, and it's unbelievably powerful."

"Like Zeus?"

Kai shook his head. "More like Black Dranzer. Though parts of its power are very similar to that of Zeus, I'll admit, like morphing its blader's body if they lose control." He shuddered. "That was particularly nasty."

"Though if I remember, Ryuga didn't get wings," Tsubasa added with a grimace. Kyouya frowned and closed the lid of the laptop.

"So why does _your_ bey go left?" he asked Tyson, who shrugged.

"Left-rotating beyblades aren't common, I'll admit, but there's certainly more than one. Mine goes left, though I've used right-rotating ones too, and one of Ray's old blades went left as well, I think. And I remember Chief designed one once where the top spun counter-clockwise and the base spun clockwise, though when I tried the prototype it unscrewed itself and exploded. Kai's can change direction in the middle of a battle if he wants it to, just to be interesting."

Kai ignored the stares he got from the visitors and gave Kenny back his laptop.

"Hey, I wanna battle you!" little Yuu suddenly exclaimed. "I bet Libra could take on one of you."

"Sure," Max shrugged. "I'll take you on."

"Wait a second," Madoka said quickly. "Is there somewhere else we can go so we don't destroy the rest of the garden?" She indicated the massive beydish that had been the result of Yuu's last launch.

"Sure," said Tyson quickly. "I know, we'll go to Bey Park. Ray and I had a battle there once and they never got rid of the crater we made, 'specially once Kai and I smoothed down the sides in another battle. I think it's about the same size as this, so we won't have to make more random holes in the ground."

"Good job too," laughed Ray. "Otherwise we'd get in terrible trouble with the park keeper. Has he forgiven you yet, Kai?"

"Shut up."

Tyson tilted his head in curiosity. "What happened?" he asked. Ray shook his head, and Tyson pouted. It looked ridiculous.

"We should go tomorrow, though," Max pointed out. "It's a bit dark now."

He was right. As Tsubasa had been talking, the sun had fully set, and now the garden was only lit by lights from inside the dojo.

"Yeah, okay," Yuu conceded eventually.

"Meet at ten by the clock?" Tyson suggested. General murmurs of assent rippled around the group, and so the bladers split off to head home – or to the place they would be calling home for the next few months.


	5. Park and Pride

**Chapter 5 – Park and Pride**

_In which everyone meets someone they don't know_

At precisely ten o'clock, Ray and Max led Kenta and his white-hatted companion Benkei to the iron clock in the centre of Bey Park. Unsurprisingly, Kai and Tsubasa were already there, Kai leaning against the metal post, Tsubasa standing on top of the clock. Ray was suddenly reminded of Hiro as Jin of the Gale, and wondered what Hiro would have to say about the new beys. The elder Granger had not moved back into the dojo after the end of BEGA, choosing instead to be part of the new WBBA and keep training the Justice Five team. Tyson had been slightly resentful, but understood in a way, especially as he himself was also now teaching blading to the much younger children of the BBA.

There was a terrific screech that made Max and Ray jump, and a huge eagle soared out of the sky to swoop around Tsubasa's head, eventually landing on his outstretched arm like a hawk. Tsubasa lovingly stroked the glossy head, letting the eagle snap at the tails of silvery hair that were blowing in the breeze. Catching the curious look on Ray's upturned face, he launched the eagle back into the sky and jumped down.

"My eagle," he said by way of explanation. "He's been with me for years."

Ray nodded, but didn't have time to say anything as just at that moment Hilary, Yuu and Madoka appeared. Yuu looked far too excited for anyone's good, a huge grin on his face as he grabbed Max's hand. "Hey, come on!" he begged. "Can't we go battle?"

"Wait," Max said. "We're still missing Kenny and Tyson and the others."

"Oh, we can start without them!"

"We wait, little boy," Tsubasa said, with a grin that took out some of the bite in his words. Yuu still scowled.

"Huh, that's so stinky. I wanna battle someone!"

"You always want to battle someone, Yuu," Kenta grinned. "What'll you do when you run out of bladers?"

Yuu shrugged. "Fight 'em all again. They might be better the second time round."

Kai suddenly straightened. "Tyson's about five minutes away."

"How could you tell that?" Max asked in shock. "You can't have seen them, you had your eyes shut!"

"I can hear him arguing with Daichi. Tyson just tried to stop Daichi climbing over the park fence rather than walking round to the gate."

"You're like Kyouya and Tsubasa mixed," Madoka commented. "Except you talk even less than they do."

"Who's like me and Tsubasa mixed?" said Kyouya, walking up behind them, Kenny trotting along in his wake.

"Kai. He just heard Tyson and Daichi from over by the gate."

"Is that what it was? The yelling?"

As it turned out, Kai was absolutely right, and Tyson, Daichi and a laughing Gingka appeared about five minutes later.

"Okay!" yelled Yuu excitedly. "Let's do this!"

Tyson led the way towards the aptly named Revolution Stadium, which he and Ray had created – not intentionally, he would always assure the park keeper – in their beybattle so many months ago. Thousands of beybattles had been fought there since, making the sides smooth and easy to run on, but the name remained, to remind the bladers that used it of the people who had fought to keep beyblading the fun game it was always supposed to be. In fact, there was already a battle going on there, with a small crowd gathered to watch as a boy and a girl sent their blades crashing into each other. Neither had a bit-beast, and they were both using the older system of blades, the one that Tyson and his friends had before the HMS blades. The visitors watched in interest, as most of them had never seen a battle between two old-type beys.

"Why aren't they using any special attacks?" Benkei asked. "I know they don't have constell... _bit-beasts – _but they're only hitting each other."

Tyson nodded. "That's normal. Our style of bey only has one, maybe two chances to use a special attack, because it's powered by an engine gear."

"Interesting..." said Kyouya. "We can use as many as we want, as they're powered by the blader."

"The HMS blades draw power from the blader," Tyson corrected himself. "But most blades just have an engine gear to give one attack a kick-start. Look!"

As he was speaking, both of the battlers had ordered their beys to attack, engaging the engine gears and slamming into each other with twice the speed and power that they had used up to that point. Both beys flew upwards and apart, exiting the dish at the same time for a tie.

"Oh man," complained the boy. "Why do I always tie against you?"

The girl shrugged and bent down to pick up her bey. As she straightened up again, she looked directly across the dish, and spotted the G-Revolutions and their visitors. Instantly, her eyes widened, then she flushed a brilliant red. Tyson heard Kai sigh beside him and had to fight to hold back a grin. Kai, with his distinctive hair and the four blue triangles that still adorned his face, was recognisable anywhere he went. Tyson had suggested that Kai dye his hair brown to blend in better, but he had been snarled at so he never brought the topic up again.

More of the crowd had noticed their observers now, and murmurs and whispers were beginning to creep through the ranks. Most of them, however, seemed to be pointing at green-haired Kyouya and silver-haired Tsubasa, which Tyson found very strange.

"Must be because we've been out of the main blading circuit for a while," Ray murmured in his ear. "These guys are the new us."

"Hmph," was Tyson's response. "Bet they're not nearly as popular as we were."

But it seemed that he was not quite right on that count. Many of the crowd were now recognisable as the younger BBA members, but regardless of that – or maybe because of it – the visitors were getting swarmed. It was at least ten minutes before the crowd thinned out enough to allow Yuu and Max access to the dish, and even then there were still enough onlookers to completely surround the massive stadium.

"Go on Maxie!" Tyson yelled. "Show that little boy why we're world-class!"

"I'm not a little boy!" Yuu yelped, placing his fists on his hips. "My name is Yuu!"

"Come on," Max called. "Are you ready?"

Yuu's launcher appeared from the sleeve of his coat. "Of course I'm ready!"

"Three..."

"Two..."

"One... Let it rip!"

Unlike Tyson and Kyouya's battle, in this one both beys headed for the middle of the dish, for the defensive power position that the very centre held. Yuu got there first, to Max's surprise, so the smaller green bey took up a circling motion around the yellow one.

"Yuu's a stamina type," Madoka said, tracking the movement of the two beys. "Would I be right in thinking that Max is a defensive type?"

"Yeah," Kenny replied, not looking up from his analysis. "So this'll probably be quite a drawn-out battle, as Yuu will wait for Max to attack and Max will just bounce any of Yuu's attacks away."

"So... Max is a bit like Kyouya, then?"

Kenny shook his head. "Your defensive type and ours are quite different. Kyouya's bey has a much stronger attack than Max's, but I think Max might have a stronger defence overall."

"Maybe they'll fight each other one day," Tsubasa said, surprising both of the mechanics by leaning between them to examine the computer screens. "Is that the comparison of power between them, Kenny?" At the Chief's nod, Tsubasa frowned. "I always thought Yuu was one of the best bladers in the world, so how come he's equal to Max's power?"

Tyson sprang to his friend's defence. "Maxie's awesome," he told Tsubasa in no uncertain terms. "Just you wait until he brings in Gravity Control!"

"Gravity _what_?_"_

"Gravity Control." Tyson was grinning. "It's amazing. You'll see."

It seemed that Yuu had overheard them. "I'm awesome too!" he yelled suddenly. "Go Libra! _Sonic_ _Buster!"_

Kai and Ray reacted instantly, jamming their hands over their ears as the waves of sound rolled out of Libra. Tyson, Daichi and Hilary were only seconds behind. Max's eyes widened as the ground beneath the yellow bey turned to sand instantly.

"What is that?" Tyson shouted over the storm of sound.

"Yuu's special move!" Tsubasa shouted back. "It's a sand-trap – any bey caught in it just gets sucked under and can't move!"

Tyson's eyes widened. "Hey, Maxie, don't get yourself caught in it...oh!"

Max had it covered. "_Gravity Control!"_

Draciel swept up to the edges of the dish where the sand couldn't reach, circling counter-clockwise and creating a massive gravity well that began to press Yuu's Libra down into its own sand trap.

"What!" shrieked Yuu. "That's impossible! I can't get defeated by my own attack, that's so stinky! Stop it, stop it! Libra – _Sonic Wave!_"

Max's blade suddenly had to dodge as a knife-edged soundwave shot towards it, followed by another, and another. The gravity well was vanishing, as was Max's speed boost – but the sand wasn't, and Draciel was worryingly close to the edge of it.

"C'mon, Max!" Daichi yelled. "You can do it!"

"Keep it up, Yuu!" came the shout from the other team. "You've nearly got him!"

"Libra, Special Move - _Inferno Blast!"_

"Go Draciel! _Aqua Shield!"_

It was difficult to tell which was higher – the column of light that shrieked up from Yuu's blade, or the wall of water that rose to counter it. The Aqua Shield surrounded the light even as the ground beneath the green blade turned to dust – and then flooded. Water poured over the dish, saturating the sand instantly and driving the already-trapped Libra even deeper, until first it and then Draciel disappeared under the water.

For a long, breathless moment, everyone waited for the water to drain away. When it finally did, Daichi let out a whoop of joy. Draciel was clinging to the edge of the stadium, just above the line where the sand had stopped. It was still spinning.

Yuu's blade, on the other hand, was buried almost to the face-bolt in soggy sand, perfectly still.

"No!" Yuu's cry as he jumped down into the dish sounded almost heartbroken. "How did I get beaten by a _turtle?"_

"Turtles aren't all that bad, surely?" Max began, but was cut off by someone clapping, slowly enough for the sarcasm to almost drip from the sound.

He stood in a clear space on the west side of the dish, about ten steps back from the edge. All the other spectators were gathered away from him, either behind Yuu or Max, or right on the far side. Golden, slitted eyes took in every detail from the horrified shock on the faces of the ones he recognised to the slowly dawning realisation on those he did not. The breeze did not dare to stir through his short, red-streaked hair, let alone tug at the sleeves of the white greatcoat he wore once more around his shoulders. The morning light glittered coldly off of the golden bracer clamped to his left arm, and from the coronet that still crowned him the Dragon Emperor.

"Ryuga," whispered Madoka.


	6. The Dragon

**Chapter 6 – The Dragon**

_In which Brooklyn discovers just how adorable Yuu can be when he wants to._

"That's Ryuga?" Tyson hissed to Gingka, who stood open-mouthed in shock beside him.

"That's him alright," Kyouya growled, shoulders tensing as he automatically reached for his bey. "But what the heck is he doing here?"

"Hey guys!" called a new voice from behind Ryuga. "Tyson? Good to see you again!"

"_Garland?_" Tyson exclaimed as the silver-haired blader jogged up. "I didn't even know you were in this country, let alone here! How are you?"

"I'm fine, Tyson – is anything wrong?" Garland frowned as he examined the faces of the group in front of him, and he followed their sight line. "Ah." he said when he noticed the object of everyone's scrutiny. "Is there something I don't know about here?"

"You know, I always thought you were so much better than that, Yuu." The sneer in Ryuga's voice was somehow just as crushing as one of Kai's famous glares, and Yuu almost visibly wilted for a second – before jumping out of the beydish and running up to the white-haired teen.

Who stopped him in his tracks with a single look.

"Sheesh," murmured Max to Ray. "Let's hope Kai's not taking notes." Ray nodded grimly.

"Oh, Ryuga!" Yuu complained. "Come on, aren't you pleased to see me?" He had his arms wide open, as if expecting a hug.

"Why should I be?"

"But Ry_-uu-_ga! It's been _ages! _Seriously, were you, like, on a different planet or something?"

"He's staying with me," Garland cut in quickly. "Mr Dickenson asked me to host the WBBA bladers from the Battle Bladers tournament – looks like he asked you too."

"Yeah," said Tyson slowly. "Garland, this is Gingka Hagane – he's staying with me."

"Hi, Gingka," Garland greeted, holding out his hand, but Gingka made no move to take it. He had yet to take his eyes off of Ryuga, who had a remarkably self-satisfied smirk at the corner of his mouth as he returned the glare.

"What a surprise, seeing you here, Hagane," he grinned. "Found your little pony yet?"

Gingka snarled something unintelligible and Kyouya grabbed his scarf to stop him from lunging at the other blader.

"That's what he wants you to do," he hissed. "It's all he can do now, antagonising you, so don't fall for it!"

"All I can do, little lion?" Ryuga's eyes slitted still further as he spotted an opportunity. "Do you really think that's true?"

"L-Drago is broken," Kyouya growled. "You wouldn't launch it even if you could."

Ryuga's shrug was less shrug and more fluid run of muscle under the white coat. "Just because it was broken a week ago doesn't mean it's broken now."

The look on the faces of Gingka and his friends was enough to tell the G-Revolutions that things were not only beginning to get out of hand, but frankly dangerous. "Um, hi, Ryuga," Max volunteered. "I'm Max, nice to meet you." However, he made no move towards the Dragon, something that Ryuga unfortunately noticed immediately.

"You're the one who beat little Libra with a tortoise, aren't you?" he laughed. Max's usually sunny expression darkened instantly.

"His name is Draciel, and he's a turtle." he snapped. "Not a tortoise."

"Wow, oh how nice for you two." The sarcastic words sounded exactly as they had when Ryuga had said them to Kyouya not two weeks previously.

"Ryuga, there's no need to be so antagonistic," said yet another new voice, and every eye flicked to the form of the white-coated red-head who was walking up the hill, a small sparrow perched on one shoulder and three butterflies clinging to his hair. Yuu's eyes widened as the red-head halted right beside the Dragon and the butterflies took off, one landing on Ryuga's crossed arms. He brushed it away irritably.

"Be nice," ordered the red-head. "If you hit them, they lose some of their colours."

"So what?"

But the red-haired teen had noticed the other bladers on the other side of the dish, and his eyes widened. "Hi, guys!"

"Hi, Brooklyn," Ray and Daichi responded automatically, and Tyson gave the god-bearer a friendly smile. But Kai's eyes narrowed and Tyson could have sworn that he heard the older blader snarl. There was no love lost between the Phoenix and the bearer of Zeus.

The air crackled with tension. No-one seemed to know what to do as Gingka and Ryuga, and Brooklyn and Kai exchanged glares across the dish. Garland and Tyson glanced between the silently battling pairs, alarmed by the level of animosity that was all but ripping the air apart. Out of the corner of his eye, Tyson saw a haze of purple rise around the two bladers on the other side of the dish, a very recognisable one. He automatically stiffened and let his hand drift to his pocket, where Dragoon was beginning to hum.

"Brooklyn, stop it!" Brooklyn broke eye-contact with Kai and turned as none other than Hiro raced up the hill. "I thought you and I had a deal that you wouldn't do that!"

"Come on, Coach," Brooklyn sighed. "It's not like I was the only one doing it."

"Brooklyn..."

"Okay, okay, okay!" Tyson waved his arms around wildly to get everyone's attention. "Can we just start this over again? Garland, what's happening?"

.

"So that's what happened." Ray tilted his head on one side and considered the tall white-haired boy who was still standing on the other side of the dish. It was about half an hour later, and Garland had just finished the story of Battle Bladers, aided by Gingka's angry interjections. "No wonder Gingka and the others weren't pleased to see him."

"You're telling me," Max agreed. "So why were you here in the first place, Garland? You're not normally in the parks at this time."

"No," Garland sighed. "You... you know that Brooklyn's not totally stable yet, right?"

Tyson nodded. "I remember you telling me when I asked you why you'd invited Brooklyn back to stay at your house. It was a bit too much to hope that one battle would completely break Zeus' control, I suppose."

"His bad days are getting rarer," Garland insisted. "It's just that he had a particularly bad day yesterday, just when Ryuga arrived. They didn't... they didn't get off to a very good start."

"I'd confiscated Brooklyn's beyblade, otherwise I think they'd have attacked each other head on." Hiro told them. "But they seemed to get on a bit better as the day wore on, and as Brooklyn was better this morning, we thought we should get him outside with his birds to get the last of the bad mood away from him. We were walking up through the park when we saw a pillar of light go screaming into the sky and Ryuga's face all but lit up. He muttered something along the lines of "I know who that is," and disappeared. Brooklyn followed him and well, here we are."

"Who'd've thought?" mused Tsubasa. "It was Yuu after all." He shook his head, apparently amused. "Can't see why, but it seems Ryuga actually thinks that's kid's pretty good. Not that he'd ever say."

"Have they ever fought?" asked Hiro.

"Once, from what Yuu's told me. He kept trying to persuade Doji to let him have another battle with Ryuga, but Doji wouldn't let him. Ryuga was the not-so-secret weapon of the Dark Nebula, so they weren't exactly letting just anyone battle him. But Yuu absolutely idolised him until he saw what L-Drago was actually doing. He felt like it was a personal betrayal – Yuu thought there was some kind of... some kind of special link between the two of them, a special rivalry, like there is between Kai and Tyson. But Ryuga just threw it back in his face." Tsubasa sighed. "Yuu still adores him, though."

Tyson looked up as subtly as he could towards the Dragon, who was apparently ignoring them in favour of examining something hidden in his hand. As Tyson watched, though, Ryuga's gold-slitted eyes swung up to meet his own, and the corner of a smirk made Dragoon's wielder blink in shock.

"He does that," Tsubasa said softly, noticing what Tyson was doing and being very careful not to be caught in the Dragon's gaze himself. "He always knows when there's someone around. The files I found in the Dark Nebula database said he had an almost supernatural ability to know when someone was about to launch a beyblade, and that he's even been known to pre-empt an attack _whilst asleep_. It's impossible to sneak up on him."

"Sounds like someone I know," Tyson muttered, earning himself a glare from Kai and quickly changing the subject. "D'you think that he wants to battle Yuu again?"

Gingka shook his head. "Yuu left the Dark Nebula organisation. I doubt Ryuga even considers that he exists any more. You saw his reaction when Yuu lost to Max."

"Yeah, but..." Tyson suddenly looked around. "Hey, where _is_ Yuu?"

That got everyone's attention, for the simple reason that Yuu was not the only one missing. Brooklyn was also nowhere in sight.

"Oh great," sighed Hiro. "Goodness only knows how long it's going to take us to find him."

"Just look for the largest collection of birds and he'll be in the middle of it," Tyson suggested, dodging a rather well-deserved swat from his brother.

"We'll go see if we can find Yuu." Ray said hurriedly. "C'mon Maxie, he can't be that far away."

.

In fact, Brooklyn wasn't very far away either. Ray and Max came across both of the missing bladers at the same time, Brooklyn sitting on the edge of the tall fountain with the normal flock of birds crowding around him, even though he had nothing in his hands. Yuu stood about three steps away, clearly trying to keep as still as possible, his eyes wide with awe as the smallest of the birds hopped onto Brooklyn's outstretched hand. Max was about to step forward when Ray suddenly grabbed his elbow.

"No, wait," he hissed. "Watch what Yuu's doing."

Yuu, moving amazingly slowly, was edging through the crowding birds to join Brooklyn. The red-head didn't even look up until the younger blader managed to hop up onto the lip of the fountain. Then he gave the other a dazzling smile and held out a hand. Perched on the end of the slender fingers was a small brown and black bird, its dark beak open in a soft chirrup.

"Here, be gentle," Brooklyn said, and tilted his hand so that the bird had to jump to the outstretched palm of the breathless Yuu. "He won't hurt you." It was unclear whether he was speaking to the boy or the bird.

Max and Ray watched in silent astonishment as Yuu's green eyes lit up. How he had managed to remain still for so long they weren't sure, but it seemed that he was utterly spellbound by the delicate creature on his hand. He raised his other hand as if to stroke the tiny head, but a shake of the head from Brooklyn stopped him.

"He's not a pet," the red-head warned. Yuu nodded solemnly, his eyes fixed on the bird to the exclusion of all else.

"You know what," Max murmured in Ray's ear. "I think Brooklyn's just adopted Yuu."

Ray was about to answer when an enormous explosion sent all of the birds shrieking into the air.

"What the..." Ray gasped, spinning to stare up at the sky over by the massive bey-dish.

A gigantic red bird towered into the air, beak open in a ringing war cry. Its golden armour flashed brilliantly in the sunlight, sending beams of light scattering across the park. Facing it, a dragon-form of equal size reared up like a snake about to strike. Ray and Max recognised the bird instantly as the fully-restored form of Dranzer himself, armoured with gold and red. The dragon, however, was decidedly _not_ Dragoon.

For one thing, there were three of them.

"Do you think that's... L-Drago?" Max breathed.

"Maybe," Ray answered absently, his eyes fixed on the huge triple beast. It looked strange, somehow, though he couldn't think why. It seemed paler than a bit-beast perhaps should be, or maybe the brilliance of Dranzer against it was simply too overpowering. It certainly looked fierce enough as it snarled, red fire dripping from purple-veined fangs.

It was at exactly that moment that Ray realised what the appearance of the two beasts meant.

He and Max took off in a dead sprint, completely forgetting about Yuu and Brooklyn, who were also watching the display of power arching across the sky with fascinated expressions. As the dragon growled and snapped at the outstretched wings of the phoenix, the two members of G-Revolutions dashed up the hill and skidded to a halt next to Garland and Kenta at the side of the Revolution Stadium.

Facing each other across the dish, white coat and white scarf snapping in the wind from the blades, were Ryuga and Kai. Ryuga's teeth were gritted in a snarl, revealing that Kyouya wasn't the only visitor to boast a pair of impressive fang-like canines, his eyes flashing a warning. Kai, on the other hand, was as cool and collected as ever, arms folded across his chest as he stared his opponent down, amethyst into gold. It was, overall, a remarkable sight.

"What happened?" Ray asked Garland, who looked almost as confused as Ray felt.

"I'm not completely sure," he said, frowning. "I was talking to Gingka, then there was this huge flash of light and suddenly the two of them were battling. They didn't even shout _let it rip._"

Kenta was a little more helpful. "I think it was because of what Tyson said earlier, that no-one can sneak up on Ryuga," he suggested. "Kai must've wanted to see if that was true or not, so he launched a surprise attack and Ryuga countered it."

"Seriously?" Max's eyebrows went up into his hair. "Kai launches insanely fast – I wish I'd been here to see it."

Kenta shrugged uncomfortably. "He didn't look very happy when Ryuga managed to block him."

"I'm just wondering how he's going to manage against the left-spin." Kyouya said, coming up behind them. "It's tricky if you haven't seen him battle before, and Ryuga's very powerful."

Ray waved his concerns aside. "This is Kai we're talking about."

"Yeah," Max grinned suddenly. "I think your Ryuga might just be regretting managing to block his first strike."

"What do you mean?" Kyouya scoffed. "Ryuga's one of the strongest bladers I know of, even if his bey's damaged, and from what I've heard, Kai's been retired from blading for two years."

Max and Ray looked at him. "He's Kai." they said in perfect synch.

"Just remember what happened when you battled Tyson," Ray pointed out. "Kai is Tyson's first and best rival. He knows exactly how to fight left-rotation beys with dragon beasts – his bey is designed for exactly that purpose."

"And just because Kai and the rest of us aren't battling in the tournaments any more doesn't mean we're not practising," Max added. "Kai's been training to have another match against Tyson, and if he can take on Tyson there's no way that Ryuga is going to stop him. They're so similar."

Privately, Kyouya thought that the two members of G-Revolutions were missing more than a few brain cells if they thought Ryuga was anything like the friendly, happy-go-lucky Tyson. But it did seem as if Ryuga was having a rather harder time than he had anticipated in the dish, as every move that he made was countered perfectly by the flame-blue bey. Kai's Dranzer seemed to dance around the Dragon's attacks, moving in to strike the second that the bey had zipped past, changing direction lightning fast.

Max was scrutinising the battle carefully. "Hey, Ray, take a look," he called suddenly. "Ryuga's bey isn't moving nearly as fast as I thought it was."

"Yes," piped up Kenny, who was still sitting on the rim of the dish. "There's considerable damage to the bey's inner structure that's slowing it down."

Ray frowned. "If he's in that bad a shape, Kai'll walk all over him."

Kyouya leant over the Chief's shoulder to look at the battle analysis on the laptop screen. "Hang on..." he said suddenly. "Kai's bey is spinning left!"

Kenny nodded. "Like we said last night, Kai's blade can go left or right, and change spin direction mid-battle if he wants it too."

Kyouya's expression darkened. "That's physically impossible. To change direction, he'd have to stop the bey completely so it could start going the other way. That would technically mean a sleep-out."

Kenny shrugged. "Kai did design the bey himself, and Ray and Max can tell you that he's king of doing things that are physically impossible. Remember when he altered Dranzer Gig so that its gears spun in reverse?"

"Oh yeah..." Ray said. "That was an interesting moment. Also physically impossible, but he did it."

Kyouya shook his head in confusion just as a brilliant flash of light lit up the sky, temporarily blinding them all. A sound so intense that it was beyond hearing silenced the world for a long, terrible moment when there was nothing to hear except the not-sound, nothing to see except the light.

Then reality crackled back into place as the wind died down, releasing its grip on the loose white coat and the twin-tailed white scarf.

"Well, that was a good attack," said Kai.

Everyone stared in astonishment. Neither blade was in the dish, both of them caught in their respective owners' hand. "You'll be an interesting challenge when you've fixed that bey."

"You too." There was something that might have even been grudging respect in Ryuga's voice. "I've never fought another left-rotating bey."

"Word of advice, then – _don't_ battle Tyson. Leave him to the pros." And with that, Kai turned on his heel and vanished in a flare of white material.

"I will always envy his ability to do that," Ray mused.

"It was a tie?" Gingka gasped. "How'd he do that?"

Kenny, however, was shaking his head. "Not a tie," he said. "They both called their beys back at the same time. Just as well; L-Drago was damaged enough anyway. Another attack like that could have shattered it. Then again, it could have shattered Kai's blade just as easily – the power was off the charts."

Garland let out a shaky breath. "Hey, Max, did you find Yuu and Brooklyn?"

"Yeah, they're over by the fountain," Max told him. "Brooklyn's introducing Yuu to the birds."

"Ah. Why am I not surprised?"

Gingka's mouth suddenly quirked up into a grin. "Does Brooklyn like ice-cream?"

"Yes... why?"

"Don't let him take your wallet whilst he's with Yuu, then. Ice-cream is pretty much a staple in Yuu's diet."

"Did someone say ice-cream?" Ray rolled his eyes as Tyson's voice broke into the conversation. "Who's got ice-cream?"

"No-one," chorused Garland and Max, just as Brooklyn and Yuu appeared at the bottom of the hill. The same little black and brown bird that had hopped onto Yuu's hand was now clinging to the older boy's white coat, chirruping in his ear. The two boys seemed to be deep in conversation.

"Hey, Brooklyn," Garland called. "We're going to head home now."

"Ohh..." Yuu's voice modulated the sound into a whine. "That's so stinky. I wanted to battle with Brookie."

"Brookie?" Garland asked automatically, eyebrows rising. Tsubasa sighed.

"Yuu likes giving everyone nicknames," he explained. "I think the only person he hasn't given one to yet is Ryuga, and possibly Madoka."

"Well, we do have to go," Garland called down the slope. "Otherwise Mystel will have turned the entire house into a climbing frame."

"Fine," sighed Yuu, coming up to stand by Tsubasa as Garland led his group away through the trees. "It's still stinky, though." He folded his arms in a very fine impression of both Tsubasa himself and Kai. "Brookie's awesome."

.

Everything seemed quieter now that the Justice Five delegation had left, which was strange, as they hadn't been very loud at all. Tyson hummed tunelessly as he jumped down into the Revolution Stadium to examine the damage done to it by Yuu's attack. "It's all turned to sand," he called up to the others. "Fine, damp sand."

"That's a pretty cool move you've got there, Yuu," Max smiled encouragingly. "But maybe we shouldn't have any more battles until the sand's dried out."

"Yeah," said Tyson, climbing out of the dish again. "You can see the lines where Kai and Ryuga were battling – I wouldn't be surprised if Dranzer Metal Spark is full of damp sand at the moment. Kai's not gonna be too happy."

"That Ryuga's really something, isn't he?" Hilary muttered. "I swear, he's even more full of himself than Tala is."

"Be nice," Ray chided. But still, he didn't take his eyes away from the gap in the trees where Garland's party had disappeared. Even if he hadn't heard the horror stories from Battle Bladers, there was something about Ryuga that didn't seem right. Something not quite..._human._

Ray was beginning to wonder if it really was just chance that had put Ryuga and Brooklyn in the same household for however many weeks it was going to be...

* * *

><p><em>AN – To find the picture that partially inspired this chapter, especially the Brooklyn and Yuu partnership, search "beyblade special tutor" on deviantArt. I love it more than I can ever say._

_A/N 2 - This fic will not be further updated until Monday 9th April. Please see the Author's Note on my profile for more information._


	7. A Genius Idea

_I'm back! As promised, Chapter 7 right here... Oh, and a disclaimer, as I keep forgetting them – I don't own Metal Fight Beyblade or Beyblade, because if I did do you really think I'd be putting it in the "**fan**fiction" section of the web?_

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><p><strong>Chapter 7 – A Genius Idea<strong>

_In which Kenny is insulted by accident_

The park was a lovely place to just relax and forget about the craziness that was real life. Or at least, it was when it wasn't full of world-famous bladers, several of them with egos to match. Luckily, most of the people who went to the park were used to seeing the stars of the city hanging out by the Revolution Stadium, and just walked on by, perhaps with a wave to the friendlier ones. Of course, there was always the odd fan who turned up, but they were normally easy enough to get rid of. At the moment, though, no-one was bothering the G-Revolutions or their visitors, for which most of them were very thankful.

Max had decided that as no-one could battle in the almost-destroyed Revolution Stadium, it was time for some precision training, and had challenged Kyouya and Tsubasa to a ten-lap race of the still-solid edge. Tyson was now cheering them on, along with Gingka, Benkei and Kenta, whilst Daichi was looking longingly towards the play equipment at the bottom of the hill. Kenny and Madoka were sitting side by side, comparing notes on the battle on Kenny's laptop screen. Ray was sitting in the grass behind them, watching the clouds scud across the sky as the wind picked up.

"Hey, Kenta?" Daichi's voice was suspiciously innocent. "Have you ever tried to swing up over the bar on the swings before? You know, go right over the top?"

Kenta gave him a rather surprised look, but shook his head. "Sounds a bit dangerous to me," he began, but Daichi had already grabbed his hand.

"Come on, then! It's great fun. I'll show you how to go really high, and then it feels just like you're flying!" He tugged at the green-haired boy's hand insistently, and Kenta cast a helpless look at Gingka before accepting his fate and following the smaller red-head. Yuu grinned and started to race after them, the light of challenge clear in his eyes.

"Hang on a moment, Yuu," Kenny called. "Can I have another look at your beyblade? I'd like to run a scan on it, if I may?"

Yuu paused and looked back, then shrugged. "Sure. Just give it back after." He fished it out of his pocket and handed it over, before running after Daichi and Kenta down the hill towards the play equipment.

"Did you want to take a look at our blades, Madoka?" Ray asked politely, holding Driger out on the palm of his hand. But the brunette shook her head.

"No, I've already got all the data I need – it's all in here." She patted the little pouch on her belt that held her palmtop. Kenny frowned.

"Really? How did you get it so fast when you haven't even seen any of our battles?"

She shrugged. "There's data in the WBBA database I can access that holds all of the information going right back to the pre-BEGA days. It's got all your stats on it, so I don't need to run scans, you following me?"

"Oh." The Chief's voice was quiet. "I guess. But..." He frowned. "Hang on. I couldn't get into that database to find out about you because of the Dark Nebula lock-down – how did you get through?"

Now it was Madoka's turn to frown. "Dark Nebula what?"

"There was a lock-down on all the information on the WBBA database so that the stuff for the trial wasn't tampered with. I was trying to look up stuff on you and the others before you came, but I couldn't get through."

"Hmm." Madoka fished her palmtop out of its bag. "Let me have a look at your laptop..."

There was a few seconds of silence – well, not counting Yuu and Daichi, who were seeing who could go highest on the swings and were shrieking at the tops of their voices, apparently having the time of their lives, and the noise from the racers.

"Hmm. Well, you're right about there being a lock-down from outside," Madoka said after a moment. "But my computer's synched to the mainframe so I can get in easily. Just a moment – I'll try and synch yours in." There was another long silence, and then Madoka's frown deepened. "Hmm. It's not working. Strange." She pressed a couple of keys, and then all of a sudden her face lit up. "Of course! I should have seen it earlier!"

"What?" The Chief looked slightly affronted at the idea that his expertise should be flawed. Ray leaned in to watch, also intrigued and more than a little curious.

"You're using a computer that's _years_ out of date. It just can't handle the speed of the WBBA servers. Why haven't you upgraded it?"

Kenny seemed to puff up in indignation and shrink in embarrassment at the same time, quite an achievement. He hugged his laptop close to his chest protectively. "I just... I just like this one," he muttered.

"Look, I might just be a bey mechanic, but I'm pretty good at fixing computers up too," Madoka told him kindly. "I'll get it upgraded for you in no time, and then you can get into the WBBA servers too!"

But Kenny shook his head. "I'll keep this one, thanks."

"Really? But... you could get so much more power out of that than you're using at the moment. Just think of the stats you could analyse out and the detail you could go into! I'd do it free of charge, of course..."

"This one's got my bit-beast in." Kenny's eyes were serious and deep. "I'll keep it, thanks."

Madoka's own eyes went wide and round. "Ohh," she breathed. "I'm so sorry... I didn't even realise..." Then the curiosity that anyone who knew Ray recognised instantly appeared in her eyes. "How'd your bit-beast get trapped in your computer?"

Kenny shrugged awkwardly. "It was an accident. I've just never worked out how to get her out again."

Madoka's eyes widened. "You've got a girl bit-beast?"

Kenny blinked. "Yeah... her name's Dizzi. She used to help me analyse stuff when I wasn't so good at writing programming. But I must have done something weird to the mainframe, because about two years ago she just disappeared and I haven't seen or heard her since. I even checked that her energy signature was still in the computer, and it was, so she's not gone completely. I just can't access her."

Madoka nodded silently. "That's really sad. I hope you work out how to do it."

Kenny looked down at his fingers, interlaced with each other in his lap. "Yeah, that's what I keep hoping. Never happens, though."

"You'll get there," Ray said, coming over to the pair. "You're a genius, Chief, there's no way that something as simple as Dizzi disappearing can stump you for too long."

Kenny sighed. "It's just... it's been two years. I'm beginning to think she doesn't _want_ to come back. I've heard of bit-beasts just deciding to leave their owner if they don't suit them properly or treat them right, and I told Dizzi I'd work out how to get her back into her blade, but I never did. What if she just got fed up and decided to leave me?"

"She might have," Madoka agreed automatically, before colouring when she realised what she'd said. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. You said her energy signature's still in the computer, I'm sure she's still in there."

"Yeah," said Ray bracingly. "You'll see, Chief. It'll be like the time when Driger left me four years ago, remember? When I was a total idiot and let Kevin trick me?"

"Yeah, but he came back really quickly," Kenny pointed out. "Dizzi's been gone for _years."_

Madoka suddenly seemed to come to a decision. "I'll help you," she said. "I know you made the Hard Metal system with a bit of help – maybe you just need a fresh mind to help work this problem out. It looks like it's going to rain soon, so what do you say to us all going home and thinking this over, then meeting up tomorrow to see what we've got? I bet if you asked the others, someone would come up with a good idea."

"I guess..." said Kenny slowly, noticing that the girl was right. Though it had been quite sunny earlier, the clouds had now swarmed in and were threatening to dump freezing cold water on their heads at any moment.

"Hey, Yuu! Daichi!" Ray called down the hill, loud enough for the three in the playground to hear him. "Come back! You too, Kenta - we're heading home before it starts raining!"

"Oh man!" came Yuu's faint complaint. "Why is nothing fun today? Rain's so stinky."

The racers were just reaching the end of their last lap, and it looked like Kyouya was in the lead with Tsubasa right behind him. Max was lagging a bit, but he seemed to be more concerned with having fun than winning.

"Come on, Kyouya, buddy! You're going to win, I know it!" Naturally, Benkei was Kyouya's biggest supporter.

"Come on Maxie!" Tyson yelled. "Don't let us down... ohh!" Because Tsubasa had put on a sudden burst of speed and overtaken Leone at the last possible second. Max came in third, laughing as he caught his blade.

"That was amazing, guys," he said. "Your blades are so fast."

"They have to be to get around the big stadiums," Kyouya pointed out. "Considering that your stadiums are so small, I'd be surprised if you went even half the speed you go at. You've even got a tortoise for a constellation and you go so fast."

"He's not a tortoise!" Max and Tyson chorused. "He's a turtle!"

"Okay, okay, not a tortoise," Tsubasa said, smiling. "But he's still not an eagle, and the eagle can outfly the wind."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Kyouya grinned. "Whatever."

"Guys, we're heading home," Ray said, interrupting. "It looks like it's about to rain."

Tyson glanced up. "Oh yeah," he said. "Rats. I thought we could at least spend the whole day out here."

"Maybe we can meet up tomorrow," Gingka suggested. "If it rains really heavily, maybe it'll wash away all the sand until we find the rock again, then we can have another battle!"

"You could all come back to the dojo," Tyson pointed out. "It's not far."

The visitors all looked towards their hosts. Hilary shook her head. "I've got stuff to do at home, I'm afraid, guys," she said.

"Dad asked me and Ray to help in the shop this afternoon," Max sighed. "I should probably get there early in case we get that delivery, 'cause we'll need to get it inside quick if we do." Ray nodded.

"Tsubasa?" Tyson asked. "I mean, Kai's gone off on his own, so you're welcome to crash at ours..."

But to his surprise, when he turned round, Tsubasa was nowhere to be seen.

"Huh!" Tyson exclaimed. "He's more like Kai than I thought!"

"So we're all heading off separately?" Kyouya asked. "If we are, we need to hurry. It's already raining."

He was right. Little dark spots were beginning to cover the ground, and Hilary was pulling the hood of her coat up. "Let's go, Yuu, Madoka!" she called. "See you tomorrow, Tyson!"

Max and Tyson exchanged a quick look. "Yeah, see you tomorrow, guys."

"See you, Maxie!"

"Bye, Tyson!"

"Bye, Kenny! Bye, Kyouya!"

And with that, only Tyson, Daichi and Gingka were left on the hill of the Revolution Stadium.


	8. Learning Once Again

A/N – we've had a lot of chapters with a lot of characters in them so far, so the next few will be focused on single households. Though it may not appear that the plot is advancing very fast, there are some vital points being hidden in the chapters that will be very important later on...

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8 – Learning Once Again<strong>

_In which Kenny gets to fix a metal bey, and Kyouya finds his balance._

"Kenny? Is that you?" called a voice as Kenny and Kyouya let themselves in through the back door, Kyouya shaking his head to get the water out of his hair.

"Yeah, it's me, Mum!"

"There's some letters for you on the kitchen table."

"Thanks!" Kenny wandered through the kitchen, picking up an apple and the letters as he passed, and indicating that Kyouya should grab something to eat too. Carrying on into the living room, he sorted through the letters.

"BBA, BBA, bank... ooh, what's this?" The postmark was unfamiliar. Kyouya, deciding that now was as good a time to be nosy as any, peered over his shoulder.

"Oh, that's the WBBA's crest." He frowned. "But you're not in the WBBA, so why are they writing to you?"

"Must be something to do with you," Kenny suggested.

"Fair point."

Sitting down on the sofa, Kenny ripped open the letter from the WBBA and quickly scanned through it. Then his eyes widened. "They want me to join as a senior mechanic!"

Kyouya's head came up very quickly. "_Senior_ mechanic? You must be seriously good then; even Madoka isn't a senior yet."

Kenny was still staring at the letter in his hand. "They say it's mostly a teaching position, getting the new mechanics to learn how to look after beys and tune them up." He frowned. "But I... I've never fixed one of your beys in my life! Why would they want me?"

"It must just be for stuff that's similar between the two types," Kyouya suggested. "After all, you did build the HMS blades, and they're pretty similar to our Koma blades."

"I guess..." Kenny still looked unsure. "I'm just going to go and phone Tyson, see what he thinks."

He left Kyouya in the living room and went out into the hall. As always, it took Tyson forever to pick up the phone. However, when he did, it turned out that he had his own news. The WBBA had sent letters to all the G-Revolutions, asking them to join the newly-reformed WBBA in some sort of advisory position.

"They want me to be an assistant at the dish-side," Tyson exclaimed. "I won't be battling, but it'd be my job to be in the crowds and watch for rising stars or for people who might have blades that are too dangerous, and report in on them. Daichi's going to be doing it too. And they want Max to join their development team, and they're looking for Ray to take over running the central gym and teaching training exercises to the kids, the way we're doing now!"

"Why do you think this has come up now?" Kenny asked, tapping a pen idly against the table the phone lay on. "We've been in the BBA for years, and the WBBA is two years old now, so it's not like they didn't have opportunities earlier. This doesn't make any sense."

He heard Tyson hum in agreement. "I guess. It is a bit weird when you think about it. I've been talking to Gingka, and he thinks that they're totally reorganising the WBBA and putting new people in charge of everything so that none of the people involved with BEGA or Dark Nebula are there anymore.

"That makes sense, I suppose," Kenny admitted. "What do you think, though?"

There was a pause on the other end. "I... I think this is a decision we have to make as a group," he said at last. "I mean, we know that Kai's already involved in training the special agents the WBBA are using, but I think if the rest of us are going to join in, we need a team meeting. It's going to be a huge change."

"Yeah..." Kenny sighed. "So when are we going to meet up to discuss it?"

"I dunno... whenever we next see Kai, I guess. Then again, Tsubasa has a mobile phone, so if Gingka can get through to him, we can get to Kai. How about Saturday afternoon? We can all meet up in the park or something."

"Sounds good. Hey, I'll see you tomorrow anyway, right?"

"Yeah, Daichi's dead keen to fight someone other than me. See you tomorrow, Chief." And Tyson put the phone down.

Almost more confused than he had been when he first opened the letter, Kenny went back into the living room to find Kyouya still sitting at the table, apparently in deep thought. Leone was lying on the table in front of him, and Kyouya was staring at his blade unblinkingly.

"All this talk of mechanics has reminded me I'm going to have to get Madoka to fix this again," he sighed. Kenny tilted his head to try and get a better look, but Kyouya noticed and gave him a fierce glare. Kenny, used to Kai, ignored this.

"You know, I could have a go," he suggested.

"You've never fixed our sort of beys, you said it yourself." Kyouya retorted. "Even if you have just been promoted to WBBA Senior Mechanic, you'll do more damage than you fix."

"Could I at least have a look and see if I can do anything? I promise I won't do anything unless I'm _certain _I can fix it properly." He bit his lip. "And I'll need some practice with the new blades anyway."

Kyouya looked a bit dubious, but carefully handed over Leone. "Be _very_ careful with him."

Kenny nodded solemnly. "I know." He set the bey on the table and turned his laptop so that it could run a preliminary scan whilst he went to fetch his toolbox from his room. When he came back, Kyouya was sitting in front of the computer, head slightly on one side, lips moving soundlessly as he read off the lists of data that the laptop was recording, clearly memorising all of it. When he noticed Kenny's reappearance, he straightened up and indicated the screen.

"What's that diagram mean?" he asked, pointing to a strange sort of pie-chart on the left of the screen.

"Damage," Kenny said. "It shows you the percentage of the damage in each section." He leaned in to look. "In your case, it's the attack ring... I mean, the fusion wheel. See how it's got nearly half the total damage? And your... what do you call it – _performance tip – _that's got about a quarter of the damage."

A short nod was his only answer. "And what about this one?"

"That's what my computer thinks your bey can manage in each of the different areas."

"But... there's nine different areas on here. There should only be three – Defence, Attack and Stamina."

Kenny's eyes lit up. Here was a blader just like Max, wanting to know everything he could about his bey, right down to the tiniest shift in mechanics. "This is a very advanced program. I wrote it myself. Those four are for the blade's own attack, defence, stamina and speed, and then _those_ four are for the bit-beast – or the constellation in your case. It means that you can tweak the blade so that it matches your bit-beast's power perfectly. See there? Your Leone has a lot more attack power than your blade allows at the moment, but the blade has far more stamina than the bit... than the constellation can manage." He leaned over Kyouya's shoulder and clicked on one box. "Yeah, see? Basically, if you end up in a drawn-out battle, your power will decrease dramatically right at the end because your beast can't support the bey for that long. I can change some of that into attack power if you like – I know I can do that."

Kyouya's eyes were glittering. "And the last area?"

"Oh, that." Kenny looked very proud. "That's special. I wrote the programming for it myself, and it's the only one of its kind that I know of. That shows you how close your bit-beast is to finding its next special attack. You're... oh, you're quite a bit off, actually." The bar was just over three-quarters of the way along. Kyouya frowned.

"What do I have to do to make that one go up?"

Kenny shrugged uncomfortably. "Practice. Lots and lots of practice." He picked up Leone and opened his tool box. "Did you want me to try and amp up the attack power?"

Kyouya paused, then shook his head. "Not yet," he said. "No offence, but I don't trust you that much. I'll leave that to Madoka. Just clean him up."

"Sure."

Kenny spent the first five minutes of clean-up just staring at the bey as he turned it over and over in his hands, memorising all the tiny parts and how they held together. He was especially interested in the tip of the bey, and ran several diagnostic programs on it whilst Kyouya sat on the other side of the table, messing around with a handful of spare parts, trying to work out how they all slotted together. By the time that Kenny got down to actually opening Leone, Kyouya had a reasonable balance-type old-style blade on the table in front of him.

"Hey, Chief?" Kenny looked up in surprise at the sound of the visitor using his nickname. "Have you got a spare launcher anywhere?"

"Somewhere over there." Kenny waved vaguely in the direction of the shelves, and Kyouya disappeared from his field of vision.

For a long time after that, there was silence in the room. Kenny winced at the amount of sand that had managed to get inside Leone, obviously from the remains of the Revolution Stadium. Then again, he mused, Dranzer Metal Spark would have even more in it. Several parts on the inside were scratched quite badly by the sand, and though there was no engine gear to clean, it was a tricky job to polish all of the tiny parts.

By the time that Kenny looked up from his work, satisfied, the clock told him that it was nearly five in the evening. A jolt of horror ran through him as he realised he had abandoned his visitor for the entire time – and that he actually had no idea where Kyouya was.

"That looks... amazing." The voice, coming from right behind him, sounded very surprised. Kenny squeaked and spun round to see Kyouya standing there, looking rather tired and dishevelled. "You really are as good as you say you are."

"Thanks," Kenny muttered, embarrassed. "Here, take it out for a spin."

Kyouya's grin was identical to the one that Tyson always wore when he got a brand-new model of Dragoon. Dropping the old-style launcher and blade onto the table, he snatched up Leone and vanished almost as fast as Kai could. Curious to see what his repairs had managed, Kenny followed him out into the dripping-wet garden, where he stopped in astonishment.

"What happened here?"

The bey-dish in the back garden was _covered_ in scratches and holes, and the bottom of it had an indent exactly the same shape as the base of a beyblade, as if the same blade had been spinning in place for long enough that it had melted the plastic away.

"Sorry," Kyouya apologised. "I was just trying out one of your sort of beys to see what it could do."

"You did that much damage with a _balance-type?"_

"Is that what it was? I thought I'd made an attack type." He grimaced. "No wonder it wouldn't move as fast as I wanted it to."

Kenny's eyes were wide. "I'll go and get my laptop."

When he came back, Leone was spinning smoothly in front of Kyouya, who looked very happy. "Good job," he said. "Leone's really sped up. Thanks."

"Let me just analyse it..." Kenny perched the laptop on his knees and waited for the diagnostics program to finish. When it did, he nearly fell off the bench he was sitting on.

"What's wrong, Kenny?"

"Look!"

Kyouya bent over to squint at the screen. Then Kenny heard him take a long, deep breath. "Whoa."

All four of the blade characteristics had shot up. Now all of them were at nearly ninety percent, and the bar that showed how close Leone was to another special attack was almost full too.

"How on earth did you do that?" both Kyouya and Kenny asked at exactly the same time. Kyouya ran a hand through his messy hair.

"That can't just be from a clean-up," he said. "What else did you do to it?"

"Nothing!" Kenny shook his head violently. "You must have been practising like crazy out here."

"But that was with a balance-type..."

"Which is why all your stats are the same now. You practised with a balance-type when you're meant to use defence types..."

The thought obviously hit them both at the same time. _"What if we combined them?"_ Kyouya murmured. "Your balance type with my defence type?"

For a second, both boys looked at each other. Then identical grins broke across their faces.

"Let's do it," Kenny said.


	9. The Dojo

**Chapter 9 – The Dojo**

_In which Tyson explains many mysteries and Gingka gets a very special blade_

Tyson put the phone down, but stayed very still for a long time.

"Tyson?" Gingka was sitting cross-legged on his futon, looking at the old Dragoon Victory blade that Tyson had been showing him before the phone rang. "You okay?"

"Yeah," said Tyson heavily, coming over and dropping down onto his own futon. "Things are just moving a bit fast, I guess. I never expected them to actually ask for all of us. Kai, yeah sure, because he knows how this sort of stuff works, but not me or Daichi."

"It'll be cool, though, you joining the WBBA, even if you're not in it as a competing blader." Gingka said. "Why didn't you do it earlier?

"What do you mean?"

"Why didn't you join the WBBA as a blader when it first started? You'd have been awesome. I mean, you totally destroyed Kyouya, even when you weren't surprising him by throwing something that looked like L-Drago at him, and what Kai did to Ryuga... I bet Battle Bladers would have been a lot different if you and the G-Revolutions had entered."

Tyson sighed and dropped down to sit on his own futon. "Well, I guess we just decided that it was better for us to teach the younger ones how to blade. I mean, I _was_ three-times world champion, there wasn't much further I could go, and it was about time someone else got a chance." He shrugged. "I like teaching. I can see why Hiro stayed with the Justice Five team to help them learn how to coach."

"Oh yeah, them," Gingka nodded. "They've been really nice, helping to publicise the WBBA all last year."

Again Tyson shrugged. "They needed to do something to fix their reputations. Particularly Brooklyn, he would've had a nasty time trying to convince people that he wasn't dangerous without Garland and Hiro's backing, so they all had to stick together. And they couldn't just stop blading, not when they'd made it as professionals and then had to drop into the amateur competitions again."

"Brooklyn reminds me of Ryuga a lot," Gingka mused. "It's weird that they both ended up in the same house. Must be really scary for Garland."

"That's probably why they're both there," Tyson pointed out. "Garland knows how to deal with the worst of Brooklyn, and Ryuga can't be much worse than him." Gingka looked sceptical, but Tyson ignored him. "And Yuu just adores Brooklyn."

"Yuu would."

For a long while, the dojo was silent. Gingka pried the blank bit-chip out of the top of Dragoon and started to take the whole thing apart to see how it worked. Finally, he said "So, it was just because you were too busy teaching, then? Didn't you... didn't you miss the competitions?"

Tyson sighed. "Yeah, I missed them. The excitement, the noise of the crowds, not knowing how the battle was going to go, giving it your all for your team and yourself. And then getting to the finals and putting everything on the line to be the top or the one everyone forgot. Some of the best times of my life have been in the World Championships."

"So why did you stop?"

"Because the drive to get to the top wasn't worth the price I had to pay to get there."

"What?" Gingka dropped the weight ring in surprise, and looked at Tyson properly. The dragon-wielder was lying on his futon, staring at the ceiling.

"The price got higher every time. The first time, the first championship, most of the bit-beasts in the world got captured, I got transported to another dimension, and Ray was nearly killed. Yeah, we all recovered, and we got all the bit-beasts back, but it took a little while. You know, Ray says that when it's cold or windy, he can still feel Bryan's attack slicing into him. He had to give up blading outside for a while if it was windy because he kept thinking he was facing Falborg, not me or Kai or whoever." His voice was terribly sad.

"Like Hikaru," Gingka murmured.

"Who?"

"Friend of mine. She's given up blading because she was so hurt by Ryuga and L-Drago. We've tried to get her to come back, but she just can't handle it. That's why she's not here with us – she went off to a different city to try and get over it."

"Yeah, something like that." Tyson didn't take his eyes off the ceiling, but fished around in his pocket for Dragoon Metal Storm. "Then the second championship I won, we lost Dranzer and Draciel again – we lost Draciel twice, actually. I've never seen Kai and Max so downhearted. Kai gave up blading temporarily because he thought he wasn't good enough to take care of his bit-beast. Some of my other friends had their blades smashed by a pair of parts-hunters called King and Queen, and then one of my friends, a guy named Zeo, he found out that he wasn't even human. He was some sort of robot boy that his dad had built when the real Zeo was killed, and all his memories were fake. He nearly short-circuited in the battle, which would have killed him. Before that, though, we got kidnapped several times, and the battles just got worse and worse. Hilary, Kai and Kenny nearly got squashed by an avalanche, Ray, Max and I were on a runaway truck, I ended up in hospital with a twisted ankle for days – you name it, and they threw it at us."

"Not fun," Gingka agreed. "But you got Draciel and Dranzer back in the end, right?"

"Yeah, but only once Zeo was defeated and all his hopes of becoming a real human were destroyed. I don't know where he is now, but I haven't seen him again since the day I battled him for that championship."

"Becoming a real human?"

"Eh, I don't know... His dad thought that if he could collect the four bit-beasts that me, Ray, Kai and Max have, he could use them to turn Zeo into a real human." Tyson glanced over at Gingka, who looked very confused. "Yeah, I know. It was a bit of a weird idea and I never really got it. Who knows? It might have worked."

"Kind-of like Pinocchio?"

"I guess." Tyson tilted Dragoon Metal Storm so that the blade reflected the light from the high window. "But it was the third championship that really brought home to me just how high the stakes were getting. All of us ended up fighting each other on different teams because they all wanted to challenge me, rather than fight through as a team together. I nearly lost three of my best friends, but that wasn't the worst. So many blades were destroyed in that championship, and the training that everyone put themselves through was so extreme that I'm surprised some of them survived it, especially Kai." He stopped and frowned. "Then again, he _is_ Kai."

Gingka was sorting through the parts of the old Dragoon that were now scattered across his futon. "People keep saying that and I don't really understand why," he said without looking up. "It's like the word _Kai_ means something more than a name."

Tyson grinned. "It is more than a name. It's Kai. There's no other way of describing it. He never does anything by halves, and normally does them by doubles." He sighed. "That's just what he's like. He's... _Kai._"

"Definitely like Kyouya, then."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, guess so. At least, if Kyouya will swap teams as much as he can just to battle you."

"Well, he hasn't done that _yet,_" Gingka admitted. "But I bet he would if he could."

"And then there was BEGA," Tyson continued, looking back at the ceiling again. Gingka found the clip that held the attack ring to the weight disc and slotted them together as he waited for his host to continue. It took so long that he began to wonder if Tyson had fallen asleep, but his eyes were still open. Eventually, Tyson rolled over and sat up. "BEGA hammered it home properly. We were way out of our league, and the matches weren't just extreme any more, they were dangerous. Tala fought Garland and was in a coma for over a month. Kai fought Brooklyn twice, and lost everything, even when he won. And then Brooklyn went crazy." He swallowed. "I won against him, but I knew then that I had to stop. It would be unfair for me to enter the tournaments against all the little newbies from the BBA, and it wouldn't be right to not give the matches my all, you know that. But the other problem was that if I came up against someone who really could challenge me, even if it was one of my friends, the battles would only get more and more extreme and dangerous. I knew that eventually someone I cared about would get killed, and it would be my fault for not knowing when to stop. I still like having extreme battles again Kai, Ray and all the others, but we don't do it for any reason other than having fun, so if things are getting dangerous, we can stop without worrying about titles or anything."

Gingka nodded slowly. "I think I see," he said. "So you started coaching instead."

"Yes. Now I understand why Hiro never entered the tournaments, and why he would only ever coach us instead of entering on his own. I guess... once you reach a certain level of power, it's just too dangerous for you to keep going, or people will get hurt. It's not fun if there's just one powerhouse with all the strength."

"Hmph," said Gingka. "Try telling that to Ryuga."

"That's exactly what I mean," Tyson warned, face unnaturally grave. "Even with the best of intentions, if any blader just keeps getting more and more powerful, eventually the power needed to challenge him or her is too much for anyone to hold, and it starts to destroy things. That's why there's so few adult bladers around."

"Like Doji," Gingka whispered. "He was really powerful – I couldn't beat him properly, Kyouya couldn't beat him – it took Hyoma, Yuu, Kenta and my dad together to beat him."

"A blader with too much power is just as dangerous as one with a dark power, no matter how weak it is." Tyson agreed softly. "That's why I stopped blading in the tournaments, and that's why I'll never join the WBBA as a competing blader, because I don't want any of my friends getting hurt because I don't know when to stop wanting the power." He was quiet for a very long time, then shook his head with a laugh. "This is all far too serious. Hey, let me show you how to put that back together again." He indicated the pile of pieces that Dragoon Victory was still in. Gingka winced.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. I bet I couldn't put one of your beys back together." Tyson quickly had the base clipped safely together, showing Gingka at each step. "Now you try with the attack ring."

For several minutes, the dojo was quiet as Tyson walked Gingka through how to fix an old-style bey in exactly the same way that the Chief had done long ago when Tyson had been unable to even open a bey up. Finally, the old Dragoon Victory blade was put back together again, and the two champion bladers sat back with identical expressions of pride. Tyson gave Gingka a sideways glance.

"What'd you say, Gingka? Wanna take Dragoon Victory out for a spin? It's stopped raining – we can use the dish Yuu made."

The look in Gingka's eyes was all he needed to see to know that he had made a good call. No matter that Dragoon wasn't really his blade, Gingka was a blader, and it went against his nature to be away from it for so long.

"Let's go."

.

The hole in the back garden was still there, sides smoothed by the tornadoes that had ripped around it the previous day, and surprisingly dry, considering the weather. Gingka's eyes were shining as he fitted Dragoon Victory into his borrowed launcher.

"I'll warn you now, he doesn't go left," Tyson called as they launched simultaneously. "Most of the Dragoons go left, but he doesn't."

"At least I won't have to learn how to use a new style then... whoa! Where's it going?" Dragoon Victory went tearing off across the dish, before shooting up into the sky and coming down upside down in the middle of the huge dish, much to Tyson's amusement.

"Too much power," he advised. "Try launching a bit slower the first time."

"I haven't had a new bey in years," Gingka admitted. "Pegasus was so powerful I didn't need an upgrade."

"Then we'll take it slow. Just try and follow my Dragoon around the first time – we'll battle later."

But Gingka's second and third launches were no better. By the fourth, he managed to get it to track Tyson's Dragoon around, but the moment he tried to attack or speed up, he lost control and the Victory spun to a halt. Tyson frowned. After a year of teaching the younger bladers of the BBA, he could normally figure out what was wrong with someone's style pretty quickly, but with Gingka it was proving to be very difficult. Of course, it could have been something to do with the fact that Gingka was expecting to still be at the level he had been at when he beat Ryuga.

"Just take it slow," he suggested. "Imagine that you're a little kid again, just learning how to blade for the first time. Yeah, I know it's embarrassing, but that's how I learned how to control my Metal Dragoon. Just give it a go."

Gingka looked puzzled, but closed his eyes and concentrated. Almost immediately, Dragoon Victory stopped spinning and tumbled to the bottom of the dish.

"This isn't fair!" Gingka exploded. "Why isn't this working?"

Tyson called Dragoon Metal Storm back to him and examined it, flicking his gaze between it and the Victory in the dish. He bit his lip, then came to a decision.

"Here," he said, coming round the side of the dish. "Have a go with this one."

And he handed Dragoon Metal Storm to Gingka.

"T-Tyson?"

"Be very careful with him," Tyson said gravely. "This one _does_ spin left, and Dragoon's powerful. He'll look after you, but just watch what you do with him."

"But... but Tyson...?" Gingka stammered. "This is yours..."

Tyson shrugged. "The Victory is a plastic bey, and it's got no bit-beast power in it. You're used to a metal bey with the full power of a beast inside it, and the Metal Storm is the closest I've got to your old Pegasus. Give it a whirl, but be gentle."

Gingka gave him a long look, then nodded just as gravely. Taking the traditional stance at the side of the dish, he closed his hand around the ripcord end and took a deep breath.

"Elbow up," Tyson ordered, watching the stance carefully. "Feet set shoulder-width apart – no, a bit wider. Now turn your left foot out. Good. Aim for the other side of the dish with your mind, not your launcher. Ready?"

"_Let it rip!"_

Dragoon Metal Storm exploded from the launcher, throwing Gingka backwards across the garden, almost into the wall of the dojo. Wincing, winded, he got slowly to his feet to see Tyson staring open-mouthed at the dish.

"What? Did I do it?"

"Oh, you did it, alright. Take a look."

Gingka limped up to Tyson's side and looked down. Dragoon Metal Storm was circling the dish clockwise, the way that L-Drago used to, going faster and faster on each circuit. In the wake of the bey, Gingka could just make out the shimmering shape of the great blue dragon gleefully chasing his own tail around the dish as he pursued his bey.

"You got it first time," Tyson told him. "And you even got Dragoon to come out. Not much, but then again, he's not yours. That's impressive."

Gingka reached out tentatively to the dragon flickering around the huge dish in the way that he'd used to reach to Pegasus. The response was instant and astonishing. Power flooded him, blue-white power that felt just like Pegasus always had, but with a hint of... of _something_ underneath, something far more ancient, tied to one place and one family and one blader for all eternity. And there was a strangeness to the strength that Gingka didn't quite understand, a sort of warping to the way it worked that Pegasus had never had.

"He likes you," Tyson said, Dragoon's happy hum filling the air. "Dragoon doesn't usually let other people blade with him."

"Can you use other people's bit-beasts?" Gingka asked breathlessly as Dragoon's power poured into him, the dragon delighting in finding such a fine blader. "I mean, could you use Max's Draciel?"

"Yes, you can, and yes, I have," Tyson said calmly. "Part of our training when we were the Blade-breakers was to use each other's blades in a battle to learn how to stretch our abilities in all areas. I could use Draciel pretty well, but Driger never liked me, and Dranzer's really stubborn. I guess that's why Kai blades the way he does."

"Can you use them alongside Dragoon?"

Tyson nodded. "It's possible to steal them, but it's also possible to do it with permission. Though it's tricky to use multiple beasts without them overwhelming you."

"With constellations..." Gingka stopped and swallowed, remembering. "You don't use the constellation itself, but you use the power it has, or the power of the other person's blader spirit. That's what Ryuga did."

"I know."

Dragoon suddenly roared and jumped into the sky, circling happily on a thermal up, up, up into the sky until he was barely a point of light above them. Tyson smiled.

"See? I told you he'd look after you. You've taken to the left-spin quite well, too, considering."

And suddenly Gingka understood the strangeness. "That's the left-spin power?" he whispered. "No wonder Ryuga loved it... it's _incredible._"

Tyson's grin got wider. "It's a lot of fun, I agree. But Ryuga didn't treat it properly. Using and understanding a left-spin blade's power is a privilege, not a right. Remember what I said about swapping blades? No-one except Kai ever got to grips with any of the Dragoons except for the Victory, just because Max and Ray couldn't handle how it works."

"So how did Kai do it?" Gingka titled his head to look up as Dragoon dived back down towards them, dragging warm, damp air behind him in a ripple. Tyson shrugged uncomfortably.

"A long time ago, Kai had a blade called Black Dranzer. Black Dranzer went left." He looked away. "Black Dranzer was supposed to be the perfect beyblade, built to match Kai, the perfect beyblader. But it was a cyber-engineered bit-beast, and none of those are exactly friendly. Black Dranzer was the worst of all of them, though. It completely consumed Kai with dark power, made him steal everyone's bit-beasts and feed them to it..." He suddenly stopped. "That's starting to sound awfully familiar."

Gingka nodded. "Do you think that's why Tsubasa was the only one to ever stand up to the dark power and succeed, at least for a while? Because Kai trained him to blade against Black Dranzer?"

"It would explain a lot," Tyson agreed, shivering before changing the subject. "Hey, Dragoon, you finished showing off yet?"

A roar echoed in both bladers' ears, and they grinned at each other. Tyson picked up Dragoon Victory.

"I've never had a Dragoon versus Dragoon battle before," he commented blithely. "Shall we have a go?"

Seconds later, the sounds of battle filled the air as Dragoon Metal Storm and Dragoon Victory took each other on for the first, but certainly not last, time.

* * *

><p><em>AN – and yes, I did look it up, and I watched the episodes very carefully. Though the art design of the first season makes it very difficult to tell, Black Dranzer does indeed spin left, at least in the episodes I watched. The model doesn't go left in real life, though, so all spin directions in this chapter and others will be from what I can tell from the anime. _

_Trust me, my mouth fell open in pure shock when I realised BD went left, because I just thought it would be something to add to Kai's awesomeness when I wrote it, and it was just going to be one of those things that I put down to author's license and the rule of cool. And then I went to research it like a good little author and it turned out to be canon... _


	10. Betrayal

_And now we leave Tyson and Gingka in the doji... I mean, the dojo, and let a few days and nights pass as we fly over to the other side of the city, where another WBBA blader is in an unusual situation..._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 10 - Betrayal<strong>

_In which Ryuga discovers many things_

Ryuga was not used to the concept of nightmares. Even as a very young child, there had been very little he was afraid of, and once L-Drago had appeared on the scene, even the normal dreams had vanished. So had sleep, but that was beside the point.

But he couldn't deny that the reason he didn't want to sleep now that he could was because he did not want to dream.

There were three dreams that he had now, and they never varied.

The first replayed his defeat at the hands of Gingka, purely to mock him, showing him exactly where he could have won if he had just let L-Drago go that little bit earlier. In that one, he could hear L-Drago laughing.

The second was of the moment that his spirit was finally crushed by L-Drago, the evil constellation swallowing him up again, feeling the pain ripping through his face as the Dragon's power restructured his very bones to create the monstrous version of him. He could hear L-Drago laughing in that one too.

The third one was the one that he hated most, though. He couldn't hear L-Drago laughing in the third dream. In fact, he couldn't hear the triplicate dragon at all. Because in the third dream, L-Drago had been taken from him, and he was left with nothing.

Ryuga would never admit it to anyone, but as much as L-Drago had manipulated him and all but killed him in the end, he had also been his partner, his companion, and the bond between them had been strong. Strong enough that even dreaming about breaking it could bring Ryuga back to consciousness with a shout, and tonight had led him to sit on the window seat in his room in Garland's mansion, resisting sleep, one hand folded over the golden bracer on his left arm that held his newly-repaired bey. He hadn't managed to completely mend it yet, but it was in much better shape than it had been when he took on the strange boy with the two-coloured hair and the white scarf. If Ryuga had understood the concept of love even as much as he understood the concept of nightmares, he might have said he loved his blade. As it was, he simply refused to let anyone touch it, doing all the repairs to it himself, never allowing it out of his possession, even in sleep.

Later, Gingka would ask him if the reason he kept it so close was because he didn't want anyone else to become infected with the darkness at its core, but that was laughable. Ryuga didn't care if L-Drago caught people and made them into monsters, not really. He didn't care about humanity in general. But what he _did_ care about was someone messing around with _his_ blade.

Because L-Drago was _his._ It could never belong to anyone else, and that made both it and him unique.

So waking up the following morning to discover that L-Drago was no longer in his hand was a shock like ice-cold water through his veins.

However, it was not Ryuga's way to panic. His iron control of his mind would not allow that, and anyway, he could still sense the dragon somewhere nearby. So, naturally, he had set off to look for it. The problem was that he was in a strange house, and he didn't have a clue which corridor would suddenly take off at a right angle and take him away from the sense of his constellation, or which doors led to dead-end rooms and which opened onto corridor mazes.

"Morning, Ryuga," said a voice right behind him, and if Ryuga had been anyone else, he probably would have jumped out of his skin. As it was, he ignored Garland and carried on walking down the hallway, following the feeling of L-Drago. Luckily, Garland was used to this from Brooklyn, and didn't take offence. Instead, he fell into step beside the taller teen. "Is something wrong?"

"L-Drago's gone," Ryuga answered, to his own surprise. "He's still in the house somewhere, but I can't find him."

Garland frowned. "Are you sure you didn't just drop it in your room somewhere?"

Ryuga scowled. "He's over there." And he pointed straight through the wall in front of him. Garland's eyes suddenly widened and he groaned.

"Oh no," he sighed. "I think I might know where it is."

He backtracked a little, opened a big glass-and-wood door and led Ryuga down the corridor, through another set of doors, up a couple of flights of stairs, left through yet another door – this one made from solid brass – and finally stopped in front of a door at the end of a corridor. He raised his hand and knocked twice.

"Brooklyn, are you awake?"

"Hmm?"

"Come on, Brooklyn, it's half past ten. Up."

"I'm up, Garland, so stop bothering me." The voice was faint, as if Brooklyn wasn't actually in the room. As if reading Ryuga's mind, Garland called "If you're out on the roof again, Brooklyn, I'll confiscate Zeus."

"I'm not on the roof."

"Then let me in."

"No."

Garland rolled his eyes, which made Ryuga smirk. "Fine," the silver-haired teen growled. "If you're going to be like that."

He took a step back. For a second, he waited, then bounded forwards and slammed his foot into the lock on the door with a yelp. To Ryuga's shock, the door merely clicked and swung open gently, revealing a room painted eggshell blue, filled with all sorts of odds and ends and -

"L-Drago!" The second he'd said it, Ryuga cursed himself for appearing so weak. But he couldn't help it. In the middle of the room, Brooklyn sat cross-legged, his own huge god-beast standing over him protectively. Two blades were spinning in front of him, one white, the other black. And curled around the red-head, one of his three heads on each shoulder and one in Brooklyn's lap, was L-Drago himself. "What have you done to him?"

"Oh, hi Ryuga!" Brooklyn didn't seem at all fazed by the fact that Ryuga's teeth were bared in a clear snarl, or that he was absently petting the third head of Ryuga's evil constellation. In fact, he was smiling, though a wolf could have looked more friendly with that expression. Garland took a deep breath.

"Brooklyn, why do you have Ryuga's blade?"

Brooklyn blinked innocently. "I just wanted to look at it, Garland."

"Then you should have asked..." Garland began, but Ryuga broke over the top of him.

"Give him back," he snarled. "Don't you ever touch him again."

Brooklyn raised a red eyebrow. "But he likes me. See?" And he stood up, L-Drago draped around him like some sort of massive living cloak. The purple dragon didn't even look at Ryuga.

If Ryuga had understood the concept of love, he would have said that his heart felt like it was breaking. As it was, the only emotion he felt was an overwhelming rage and hatred, not only for the red-headed thief, but for his treacherous constellation too.

"Brooklyn, give it back, _now."_ Garland ordered, but Brooklyn had already turned and walked out onto the patio behind his room. "I'm so sorry, Ryuga, I'll..."

"How did he do that?" The rage had settled deep inside his stomach, leaving Ryuga with a faint sense of shock. "He just... walked off with him."

Garland sighed. "Brooklyn's Zeus is a dark bit-beast, much like your own L-Drago. I suspect Zeus is subduing L-Drago because, like Brooklyn said, he wanted to have a look at it." He shook his head. "And Brooklyn is a chronic sleep-walker. We lock him in every night, but every night he gets out and then once he's back in his room, locks himself back in so that we don't notice. I only worked it out when I found half the cutlery in his room. He has this thing about white shiny objects, and he very rarely gives anything back. I ended up buying more cutlery because I couldn't persuade him to give it all back."

Ryuga still hadn't moved. "So how do I get my bey back?"

Garland shrugged. "I don't think you can. If me and Hiro can't, and we know Brooke better than anyone, what could you do? He's not exactly been hiding the fact he doesn't like you."

To Garland's shock, Ryuga moved like lightning, and the kick-boxing beyblading champion found himself pinned to one eggshell-blue wall by his throat, a pair of slitted, golden eyes burning into his own. "I said, _how do I get L-Drago back?"_

In that second, Garland's life flashed before his eyes as it never had before, not even on the worst of Brooklyn's bad days. He understood at last why Gingka and his friends had been so cautious around Ryuga, even when he was not armed with L-Drago.

Because Ryuga – there was no other way to put it – Ryuga was even more dangerous than Brooklyn.

* * *

><p><em>AN – yes, I know, two uploads in less than a week! But I'm afraid we'll be going back to the usual "about once a week" schedule from now on... I just loved this chapter too much.  
><em>


	11. The Challenge

**Chapter 11 - The Challenge**

_In which chaos happens, as usual_

Garland decided that he hated his life sometimes. Of all the weekends when his brothers and sister were all away at various competitions as well as Hiro having gone back to the dojo to visit Tyson, it had to be the one when he had two bad-tempered super-powerful bladers possessing demonic bit-beasts in the house, who were at each others' throats the entire time. Not only had Brooklyn decided that stealing L-Drago and not giving it back was a really _fun_ way to liven things up, he'd also now removed himself to the roof, where no-one could reach him, and was currently entertaining himself and infuriating Ryuga by getting a besotted L-Drago to play fetch.

Apollon's blader couldn't understand it. He had been brought up to understand that a blader could only have a true relationship with one bit-beast at a time, and that everyone was perfectly matched to their own bit-beast. Yet Brooklyn had apparently adopted L-Drago, who didn't even seem to care that his real master was only a couple of metres away, sitting cross-legged on the patio, seething.

Just to make matters even worse, Mystel was not being exactly helpful. He appeared to have taken Brooklyn's side in the argument, to the extent that both Poseidon and L-Drago were now chasing sticks up and down the garden like a pair of very lizard-like dogs.

"I'm really sorry," Garland said for what must have been the thousandth time that day, but as usual, Ryuga didn't accept it. "I know it's awful but..."

"I don't see your beast out there making a fool of himself," Ryuga snarled. "So why don't you just shut up and work out how to get mine back?"

Garland restrained himself with difficulty. "Look, Brooklyn will get bored eventually. He always does. Just don't react, give it a couple of days and..."

It was the wrong thing to say. Ryuga stood in a swirl of white cloth and with a disgusted look at the bearer of Apollon, stormed back inside.

Garland sighed and tilted his head back to look at the sky. He'd never known Brooklyn to be so... so _obstinate_ before. Yeah, he'd been difficult at times, but never like this. Normally, give Brooklyn a few hours alone with his birds and he'd be happy to do anything for anyone. But now, he was just being stubborn. What could Garland do to stop either Ryuga or Brooklyn from tearing the place apart?

.

Lunch was downright _awkward._ Garland somehow managed to manoeuvre everyone so that Ryuga and Brooklyn could neither glare the other into submission nor physically attack the other. However, Brooklyn made it painfully obvious that he was not going to co-operate with anyone that day, whilst Ryuga just feigned deafness so well that Garland gave up and had to reach right across him to get the ketchup rather than trying to ask. Brooklyn took advantage of this to begin a discussion with Mystel about all the possible weaknesses in a dragon-form bit-beast. Naturally, Ryuga couldn't respond without breaking his fictitious deafness, so he had to sit there seething whilst Brooklyn merrily ran through a list of things that could go wrong with a dragon, beginning with scales falling off and ending with it getting cut in half like a worm and the cut ends growing back the wrong other end, so that it had two tails on one and two heads on the other. Garland was just waiting for the table to explode into flames. It couldn't be long now.

But for once, Garland was glad to be wrong. Lunch passed without any super-powered explosions, and even without Ryuga breaking his self-imposed lack of hearing. Brooklyn seemed slightly disappointed by this, which was unnerving.

To the utter relief of the currently _only_ sane member of the household, they had visitors straight after lunch. Mystel and Brooklyn were delighted when Yuu showed up, and Garland even more delighted when Ray showed up with him – something about Hilary and Madoka wanting to go shopping and Max having more than enough help in the shop. The bit-beast thief and the gymnast disappeared off into the garden with Yuu, whilst Garland managed to make something resembling green tea that Ray was too polite to refuse.

"How long does Brooklyn usually keep things for?" the neko-jin asked, taking a sip for courtesy's sake. "A day, a week, a month?"

"Could be anything," Garland admitted. "He normally loses interest in something after a couple of days, but if he gets a reaction out of someone for what he's done, he'll keep doing it. It's not malicious, really, it's just his way of getting what he wants."

"What does he want?" Ray's question came as a bit of a surprise to Garland, who hadn't really thought about it.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "Brooklyn doesn't seem too bothered about the actual blade itself – he's left that lying in his room somewhere – but he's very determined to make Ryuga aware of the fact that he's got L-Drago."

Ray's mouth twitched. "And there was me thinking that we'd managed to get away from all the bit-beast thieves."

"Yeah... you know what Ryuga did in Battle Bladers, right?"

"Of course I do." Ray flicked his gaze to the French doors leading to the front room. "I managed to persuade Chief to get a copy of the battle tapes for me. There was some pretty serious stuff going on there. I'm surprised it ended as peacefully as it did, though I guess that's mostly thanks to Gingka and his friends."

Garland sighed and looked out of the back window to where Yuu and Mystel were now battling enthusiastically. "I just wish I'd noticed something was up sooner. If I'd noticed what was going on in the rest of the WBBA instead of just running the promotional tournaments with the other guys, maybe I could have stopped it all from going so far."

Ray shook his head. "Don't beat yourself up about it, Garland," he ordered. "There was no evidence that they were doing anything dangerous or even illegal right up until the end when Doji started getting overconfident. By then, you couldn't have stopped it even if you'd tried. It was the same with us and BEGA – we didn't realise something was wrong until BEGA was already firmly placed and had been in action for a couple of months, and even then Boris almost succeeded in making us out to be the bad guys. Doji would have just done the same to you."

"I guess you're right." Garland's gaze had drifted beyond the battling pair and up to where Brooklyn was sitting on the rope-swing under the apple tree, L-Drago once again coiled around him. "It doesn't change the fact that I wasn't paying enough attention, though."

"Isn't that why they're rebuilding the WBBA with a much stronger structure this year?" Ray asked. "So that people like the Dark Nebula organisation can't take advantage of it again?"

"I suppose. But I'll keep a closer eye on things in future."

Ray suddenly grinned. "Yeah, you do that. And who knows? Maybe one day you'll be the Director of the WBBA!"

"Yeah right." Garland laughed. "No thanks." He suddenly looked around. "Who's playing the piano?"

Ray's grin tilted a little to one side. "You've only just noticed, huh? I think it's Ryuga."

"I didn't know he could play piano."

"He can't."

"Oh." The neko-jin was exactly right. Ryuga was not the world's best pianist. He was, however, angry, and not afraid to show it. Garland winced. "That _was_ a Steinway."

"I think it still is," Ray pointed out. "If it's a Steinway, it'll survive a bit of bad treatment."

"It's not mine. It's my sister's."

Ray fixed him with a golden glare that by now was beginning to look eerily familiar. "Would you rather he was taking it out on Brooklyn?"

Garland had to admit, the answer to that was no.

.

To Garland's relief, Ray accepted his invitation to stay for dinner, meaning that it was slightly easier to keep Ryuga and Brooklyn separated. Yuu happily chattered away at the older Dragon, who made absolutely no response, having reverted to his previous state of feigned deafness. Brooklyn, however, seemed to have already forgotten his obsession with Ryuga's constellation, and was engaged in a rather fierce debate with Ray about something or other. Garland decided to count his blessings and struck up his own conversation with Mystel.

He thought he had got away with it. Unfortunately for him, Ray was merely a distraction, albeit a lengthy one that managed to last until about halfway through Mystel's second slice of blackberry and apple pie – which was about when everyone else was finishing their first.

"Oh, Garland?"

The voice was all sweetness and light, and he really shouldn't have answered it. "Yes?"

"You know what? L-Drago fits in my beyblade! So now I can use L-Drago _and_ Zeus at the same time."

Garland was suddenly very aware of Ryuga's gritted teeth on his left, and remembered with a small jolt that it wasn't just Ray and green-haired Kyouya who bore two small but nevertheless rather impressive fangs.

"That may not be a good idea..." he began, but Brooklyn could be amazingly slow at getting a hint when he wanted to.

"Of course, he's quite a tricky beast to totally control, but I'm a beyblade master, so it only took me about seven minutes. He's really quite friendly once you get used to him snapping. Must have been an old owner teaching him bad habits."

There was only one way this could go, and Garland could feel everything spiralling out of his control. "Look, Brooklyn, maybe you should just give L-Drago back to Ryuga. It _is_ his bit-beast after all."

"Constellation."

Everyone at the table turned. Ryuga was staring straight ahead at the wall, jaw clenched and hand gripping the edge of the table so hard that Garland was expecting it to shatter. "L-Drago is a constellation, not a bit-beast." Somehow he managed to say it without once unclenching his jaw, even without moving his lips.

"Oh, sorry," Brooklyn said absently. "I forgot that you call bit-beasts funny things where you come from. Well, now he's mine he'll have to be a bit-beast. I'm sure he won't mind."

Even Mystel suddenly decided that Brooklyn had gone too far this time, and hid behind Ray. Brooklyn's maddening smirk was still in place when Ryuga rose to his feet with all the terrible majesty of an enraged Emperor, eyes flashing brilliant red. That was more than enough for Garland, who after all had seen the final battle of Battle Bladers.

But before he could get between the two, another voice piped up. "Ryuga? Ryuga! Stop it, you're scaring me!"

Garland thanked every lucky star that had ever risen for Yuu Tendo. The little boy, less than half Ryuga's height, had reached out to tug at the Dragon's arm, bringing those terrible eyes round onto him with an accompanying snarl. "Ryuga?"

For a long moment, wide, frightened green eyes looked up into deep, glowing red ones. Even Brooklyn had frozen into stillness. Garland could hardly dare breathe. How was it that Yuu, who couldn't be more than eight or nine, could face up to the terrifying figure in front of him when the nearly nineteen-year-old, professionally trained kick-boxer Garland couldn't?

"Ryuga, please?"

Some invisible string of tension snapped, and the red in Ryuga's eyes slowly faded to its usual gold as the Dragon let out a soft sigh. Garland could have sworn that he saw the outline of a three-headed dragon surrounding him, but... no, that was impossible.

"I'm going to bed." The announcement was perfectly calm, almost as if nothing in the past five minutes had actually happened. "Good night, Yuu."

The remaining five in the room stayed silent in shock until long after the door had closed behind Ryuga. Finally, Mystel whistled through his teeth.

"That was close," he muttered. "Brooke, you might have just pushed him a bit too far."

Brooklyn ran his right hand through his hair, the way he always did when things hadn't quite gone how he'd planned. "Yeah, guess so."

"Um, we should be going," Ray faltered. "Hilary and Madoka will be wondering if something's abducted us."

"Of course," Garland replied absently. "I'll... yeah, I'll just get the door for you."

He was still somewhat dazed as Ray and Yuu disappeared down the garden path into the dark. As the two reached the gates, Yuu turned back and waved, and then shouted something that Garland didn't quite catch. He waved anyway, then closed the door against the night and leant back against it. Sometimes, he wondered at his own sanity, let alone that of the four complete psychopaths he shared a house with. And yes, that was counting Hiro.

.

Ray frowned as he led Yuu across the main road. "Why did you say that to Garland, Yuu?"

"What?"

"Why did you tell him to look after Ryuga properly next time?"

Yuu shrugged. "Someone's gotta look out for him. Might as well be me, as he's got no-one else now." And he skipped ahead of the neko-jin towards the welcoming lights of Hilary's home.


	12. Challenge Accepted

**Chapter 12 - Challenge Accepted**

_In which Brooklyn learns... something. Maybe._

The next morning, Garland decided he deserved a lie-in. After the stress of dinner last night, sleep could at least make him forget about the problem for a while. Hiro was back now, and he could be landed with the usual pair of demons plus one for a few hours at least. Maybe with a bit more sleep, Garland could work out how to get L-Drago back...

"Go Zeus!"

"Go, L-Drago!"

"Whee! Go guys!"

Garland gave up on his lie-in in favour of diving for the window. Ripping the curtains open, he stared in absolute astonishment at the bey-dish in the garden. Ryuga and Brooklyn stood either side of it, with Mystel acting as referee. Sparks of light from clashing metal sprang upwards in the smoke that was pouring from the dish. Garland clutched at the windowsill, hardly daring to believe his eyes.

"They're..._ battling?"_

.

"Turns out that's what Brooklyn wanted all along," Hiro explained over a slice of toast. "He knew Ryuga was powerful, so he wanted to battle him. Brooklyn loves messing with his opponent's heads – remember how he treated Kai in their first battle? So once he'd worked out that Ryuga's only weak spot was his bond with L-Drago, he used that to get Ryuga angry enough with him to challenge him for the right to wield L-Drago." He chewed thoughtfully. "Unlike Kai, Ryuga never loses control of himself in battle, even when his opponent is infuriating him, belittling him – whatever. Whilst he's in battle, he's totally focussed, unless L-Drago is trying a takeover bid. So, as L-Drago was too weak to do that, Brooklyn's only way of getting under Ryuga's skin was to attack him outside of battle."

The kitchen suddenly shook, and Garland glanced up as a small shower of plaster fell into his cup of tea. "It was a bit out of line, though."

"Not in Brooklyn's world." Hiro helped himself to another boiled egg. "Brooklyn likes to find out what makes a person and then undo them from the inside. You know how he treated you."

"Not bad for a warm-up, Garland," Garland mimicked.

Hiro nodded. "You've been brought up to want to be the very best at whatever you do – that's who you are. Being told you're only good enough to be a warm-up for him attacks that, attacks your identity. He did the same to Kai, attacking his pride by publicly destroying him, and to Tyson, by trying to pull him away from the support of his friends. Kai's pride is his identity. Tyson's friends make his identity. And Ryuga... well, L-Drago is his identity. It's who he is. Brooklyn tried to break that bond, and it very nearly worked."

Garland looked out of the kitchen window again just as a clump of smoke blew past. "The irony of all this being that by stealing L-Drago, Brooklyn was actually preventing Ryuga from challenging him."

"You know the way Brooklyn's mind works." Hiro sighed. "At least they're actually battling now, so it should stop."

"I just hope they don't destroy the mansion in doing so."

Hiro shrugged. "They won't. Brooklyn loves this place too much to let anyone destroy it."

"Zeus, _King of Darkness!_"

"Then again, maybe we _should_ go and make sure they're okay," Hiro amended. "After all..."

"Dark Move! _Dragon Emperor Soaring_... ow!"

Garland frowned, getting to his feet. "That's not what it's called."

"Fine, can't use that. Okay, okay, L-Drago, just hit him!" Ryuga sounded more than a bit confused.

"What on earth is going on?" Hiro asked as the pair raced out onto the lower patio.

Ryuga's enormous constellation was curled around him once more, glowing purple. Red fire dripped from each of the three mouths, making it just as terrifying as the massive dark centaur facing him. Ryuga had his arms spread out to either side, as if to gather in the energies pouring from his blade, but he looked slightly surprised.

"Ryuga tried to use a Dark Move, but he forgot that he can't use it 'cause his bey isn't fixed properly yet," Mystel chirruped, looking up at Garland and Hiro. "So L-Drago bit him. And because L-Drago's not really so evil now, using an evil Dark Move to steal Brooklyn's power won't work."

"So?" asked Hiro.

"So I don't really know who's going to win." Mystel bounced up to stand beside the older teens, grinning. "Brooklyn's more powerful, I think, because Ryuga's blade still isn't fixed properly, but Ryuga's awfully tough. He's already taken L-Drago back from Brooklyn once, and even though Brooke's hit him with King of Darkness, Ryuga's still not losing. He's not winning either, but Brooke's not too happy."

Garland ran the sentences through his head a couple of times to make sure he wasn't just imagining things. "Hang on – Ryuga _took L-Drago back?"_

"Yeah," Mystel nodded vigorously. "Brooklyn had both of them at the beginning, but Ryuga got L-Drago back about fifteen minutes after they started. He really was quite insistent."

"Exactly how long have they been battling?" Garland asked in wonder. Mystel shrugged.

"They were already at it when I came to play referee for them. I think they'd been going for about five minutes, judging by the damage to the dish."

"And you were already being ref and Ryuga already had L-Drago when I saw you about twenty minutes ago..." Garland mused. "So they've been at it for over half an hour. No wonder they're both considered amongst the most powerful bladers in the world. I can't get Apollon to spin for half an hour even if I'm not in battle."

Mystel grinned. "That's why it's so awesome to watch. But I think they're nearly at the end now."

He was right. The blades weren't hitting each other with anywhere near the power they had shown earlier, and both bladers looked nearly exhausted. To Garland's relief, Brooklyn didn't have the same strained look he had worn near the end of his second match against Kai, nor the darkness that had surrounded him during Tyson's battle against him, which at least meant that he wasn't going to have to explain to the armed forces why another new dimension had opened up in the sky. However, contrary to popular opinion, an exhausted Brooklyn was far harder to keep control of than a rested one. For one thing, a Brooklyn who was tired was also far more irritable, and far more likely to utilise his bit-beast to do things rather than get up to do them himself, which _always_ resulted in half the crockery being broken by the enthusiastic but far-too-large Zeus.

As far as Garland knew, an exhausted Ryuga was an even worse idea than an exhausted Brooklyn. He had heard it hinted by Kai, who had been studying the data stolen by Tsubasa from the Dark Nebula organisation that the reason L-Drago had taken over – in fact, the reason he had been able to in the first place – was because Ryuga hadn't slept more than an hour a night since he got the beast, not counting the long coma he was in immediately after claiming its power. From what Kai had discovered, L-Drago relied on his blader being awake and angry in order to be at the peak of his powers, and if there wasn't enough anger or energy for the blader to keep going, L-Drago would reverse the process and take over the blader's body to prevent it from collapsing.

Which made very little sense to Garland, but L-Drago was very old, and very powerful, and more than a little insane.

Zeus' blade moved to intercept an attack, and the earth shuddered. Garland winced as he heard the unmistakable sound of tiles falling from the roof.

"You know, you're not too bad," Brooklyn smiled across the dish, and Garland's eyes went wide in shock. Brooklyn _never_ said things like that.

"You're not too shabby yourself," Ryuga agreed, with apparent reluctance, before snapping "But I'm still going to win!"

"Oh no you're not! You can't even use your special move, so there's no way that you'll beat me now! Zeus, _King of Darkness_!"

"Hah, you think so?" Ryuga's eyes flashed red for a split second, so fast that if Garland hadn't been watching very carefully he would have missed it. "L-Drago, _kill him."_

The three-headed dragon sprang from its place wrapped around Ryuga and charged for the dark centaur, eyes, fangs and tails blazing. Zeus reared and spread his dark wings wide, the three familiar twisting tornadoes whirlpooling out from behind him. Each dark funnel smashed headlong with one of the heads of L-Drago, sending red and black and blue sparks flying up as the white blade and the black collided one final time.

And exploded apart.

The smoke cleared slowly, almost agonisingly slowly for the three watching from the patio. The first thing they could see were the bright white coats of the two combatants, who appeared to have been blown back from the dish, though both were still standing, staring across the battered beydish at each other.

Their beys lay at their respective owners' feet, both perfectly still.

_"Wow,"_ said Mystel.


	13. Cross Words

_A/N – and we once again leave the house we've spent three chapters in and go to visit another couple of bladers who are consistently mysterious and refuse to let anyone know what they're getting up to... yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are sneaking into the Hiwatari mansion to visit Kai and Tsubasa._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 13 – Cross Words<strong>

_In which Kai can't answer a word puzzle and Tsubasa needs more training_

Evenings were always quiet in the Hiwatari household, particularly Fridays. The household staff had the evening off, as their master tended to conduct any business meetings on Saturday mornings, and therefore they were needed especially early on that day. So the only two people in the huge, ancient home were Kai and Tsubasa, neither of whom were fond of large amounts of noise.

In fact, at this moment, the only sound that could be heard was the scratching of Kai's pencil as he worked through the crossword, and his occasional mutters as an answer eluded him. Tsubasa was lying on his back on the other sofa, reading a book, ignoring his host and erstwhile trainer.

"Six down... weapon in Greek rising..."

"Hmm? What's that, Kai?"

Kai sat back with a sigh. "Six down. I've been trying to work it out for ten minutes now. 'Weapon in Greek rising' is the clue. Blank, R, blank, blank." It must have been a particularly frustrating puzzle, because he didn't normally tell Tsubasa he was having a problem.

Tsubasa thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Could be anything. Why don't you leave it for a bit? I bet as soon as you start doing something else you'll think of the answer."

"I guess." Kai put the pencil down. "Did you want me to take a look at Eagle? I know I said I'd do it tomorrow, but as I can't sort out this stupid crossword, I might as well have a go now."

"Here," Tsubasa said, fishing around in one pocket and bringing out his purple and silver blade. "I was wondering if it was the fusion wheel that was putting it off balance, but now I'm not so sure."

Kai place the blade on its side in front of him and set his elbows on the table, cupping his chin between his hands. He stared at the blade for so long that Tsubasa was about to go back to his book and leave him to it when he spoke.

"There's a tiny chip broken off of the edge of the performance tip. Not enough to affect it in a battle yet, but in practice when you're concentrating on perfect balance it would go off to the right after a while."

Tsubasa blinked. "I will never be able to understand how you can do that. You weren't even looking at the tip."

"I was watching you in practice earlier."

"You were?"

"Of course I was." Kai suddenly frowned. "I thought you knew. You badly need to tighten up your awareness training if you couldn't see me right there."

Tsubasa sighed. Kai had been like this ever since he had first arrived, making it clear that though he was proud of what his former pupil had achieved in terms of infiltrating Dark Nebula, the silver-haired blader needed a lot more training to come anywhere close to what Kai considered an acceptable level. It seemed that even though Kai himself was no longer competing, he had been keeping himself in top form, and had easily defeated Tsubasa in their first and so far only battle.

"More training?"

"More training." Kai glanced up at the other young man. "You don't agree?"

Tsubasa hesitated. He knew how much of an honour it was to have Kai Hiwatari training him, and he also knew that the other four special agents for the WBBA were nowhere near as well-trained as he was, but he would have appreciated a break after everything he had been through in the past two months. After all, hadn't it been due to Kai's own training that he had managed to stop L-Drago in its tracks, if only for a moment?

"Don't drop your guard."

"What?" Tsubasa jerked out of his thoughts as Kai's voice snapped across the room.

"Don't drop your guard, ever. That was your first mistake – you assumed that L-Drago was down for the count and got too confident. Never, ever lower your guard, never stop noticing everything around you, and exclude..."

"Exclude nothing, including yourself, in your analysis of the situation." Tsubasa finished. "I know, I know. You've told me enough times."

"But you don't listen." Kai's tone was harsher than Tsubasa had ever heard before. "You don't listen and you don't learn. You couldn't even tell what was wrong with your own bey today. I won't always be around to fix things for you."

This was quite enough. "Look, Kai, I don't know what I'm supposed to have done, but I fought my hardest against Ryuga and he was just stronger than me."

"Even if that is true, you should have been able to beat him." Kai wasn't looking at the silver-haired blader, but at the purple blade lying on the table in front of him. He reached out and brushed a finger almost tenderly along the edge of the fusion wheel, features set in a solemn cast. "You let your guard down at the end, and lost control of yourself. No, I don't mean that you lost control of your blade," he growled as Tsubasa took a breath to protest, "but you stopped thinking clearly once you knew you'd stopped the Bite Strike. You just attacked, thinking to push him out of the arena as fast as possible without considering what else you could do. As soon as you did that, he had you, and there was nothing you could have done. In battle you must always, _always_ keep your mind clear and calm." He looked up. "That's why you need more training. Not your body, but your mind, your perception. With training and control, you can beat almost anyone, no matter how much stronger they are."

"Almost anyone?" Tsubasa had caught the extra word, and fixed Kai with a golden stare. "_Almost?"_

"There's always going to be one or two exceptions," the other said softly, looking back at the table.

"Tyson," Tsubasa agreed just as quietly. He knew all about Kai's long-standing rivalry with the owner of Dragoon.

"And Gingka," Kai countered. "There's something about him that defies strength and training. It's like... like an extra level of luck that he has – that he and Tyson both have – that no-one else does."

Tsubasa picked up Eagle and turned it over until he spotted the truly minuscule chip that had flaked off the side of the performance tip. "I know what you mean," he sighed. "I couldn't believe it when I heard that he'd made up all of the fifty thousand points he lost to Phoenix in only a month."

Kai frowned. "I'd been meaning to talk to you about that, actually; I don't think the points system has been very well thought out at all."

Tsubasa was puzzled. "It's the method that we've always used in the WBBA, and it's a really clear indicator of how good a blader is – you just look at how many points they have."

"An indicator of how good a blader is... or how much of a bully and a cheat." Kai's voice was solemn. "Yes, it's an easily readable system, but it can be abused far too easily. Look at what happened to Gingka, for example. He lost nearly fifty thousand points in one go because someone broke his counter, and from what you've told me the first time you met him he was surrounded by points hunters. It's a flawed system – it's too easy to cheat."

The owner of Eagle had to agree that his elder had a point. Points hunting had become far more of a problem recently, especially in the months leading up to Battle Bladers, and he knew more stories than he cared to admit about good, young bladers being forced to drop out of a competition because someone had taken their points outside of the dish. Still, it was the system that he knew and understood.

"It does work, though," he defended. "And it's much easier to rank people. Didn't you say that when you met Brooklyn he was at the bottom of the rankings in BEGA because he never entered tournaments? You'd have known straight away how good he was if you'd had the points system, because he'd have had so many."

"Not necessarily," Kai corrected. "You've only met Brooklyn a couple of times, and you've never battled him. You have no idea what he's like. I know him better than most, except maybe Garland and Hiro, and I don't think he'd be concerned with points. He'd probably drop his points counter into the river just so he didn't have to bother with it."

"Even so..."

"It's the system they used at the Abbey," Kai said tightly, interrupting. Tsubasa fell silent instantly. He knew the absolute minimum about Kai's hellish upbringing in the Russian abbey under the care of Boris Balkov, but he knew enough that the very word _Abbey_ could send shivers up his spine, mostly from the horrible, distant expression that Kai wore whenever he thought about it. It was as though half of who Kai was had been swallowed up by that place, and every time it was mentioned he went looking for that missing half of himself.

"In... in the Abbey?"

"Yeah." Kai's voice was as remote as his expression. "Regardless of your level, you always had to wager at least one hundred points in a match. It was meant to make the lower level boys fight harder to keep their points. And as soon as you had none left, you were entered for special training." His eyes were strangely glazed in a way that Tsubasa didn't like one bit. "I never knew anyone come back from the special training alive, except Bryan."

"Did you have points thieves too?" Tsubasa asked, curiosity overcoming his usual shock at the things that had happened in the Abbey.

"Of course we did." Kai's voice was still distant and dreamy. "The more points you had, the longer it would be before you had to go into the special training." Then he shook his head as if trying to wake himself up. "But that was years ago."

Tsubasa realised he was staring and quickly dropped his eyes to the purple blade in his hand.

"So," Kai continued as if the previous conversation hadn't happened. "I think it might be a better idea to go back to the old style of measuring success – by how many battles a blader has won and lost."

"That'll only work for official battles, though," Tsubasa pointed out, glad to be back on safe territory. "Street battles were able to include points, but I don't think it would work to include the rankings system. And what would happen if you just won against the same person time and time again?"

Kai sighed in the way that let Tsubasa know he was beginning to become tired of the conversation. "There's flaws with both methods, of course," he said. "But with the old method at least there wasn't any bullying of the younger ones to advance yourself, not directly. There was destruction of blades, of course, but that's much harder to do now that the metal blades have been made."

Tsubasa nodded, seeing what Kai was saying. "I'll talk to the director about it as soon as they decide who it's going to be."

"Good. Then at least it might be in place in time for the World Championship, and that would make life so much easier."

There was a long moment of silence. Neither blader was looking at the other, both temporarily lost in their own thoughts.

"Kris!" Kai suddenly exclaimed, and Tsubasa nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Who's Chris?"

"Not Chris - _kris,_ it's a knife, a kris knife! You know, the ones with the wavy edges."

"_What?"_

"The answer to the crossword. It's a weapon, inside the words "Greek rising" - the last letter of Greek and the first three letters of rising. Why didn't I see it before?"

Tsubasa shrugged helplessly. He had trained with Kai for months, and still reported back to him regularly, and had also been living in the Hiwatari's house for nearly three weeks now, so he counted himself among the tiny number of people who could say that they actually knew something about the mysterious, grey-blue haired young man. But sometimes...

Sometimes Tsubasa felt as if he really knew nothing at all about him.

* * *

><p><em>AN – kris knives are just as I described here – a Malayan or Indonesian knife with a wavy edge. They're quite pretty, actually._

_This may be the last update for a while; I have no more completed chapters (normally I write six or seven chapters ahead, but due to a combination of writer's block and exam revision, I've just been using up the extra chapters) so you'll have to wait for me to finish a couple more before I post the next one. Please be patient!_


	14. Without Accompaniment

_I'm alive! _

_My deepest apologies especially to Luxraylover, to whom I said that this chapter would be up about a week ago. On the plus side, I have now finished my first year of university and so have far too much time on my hands...but also far too many ideas. So this is a nice long chapter to make up for the fact that I've left you all hanging!_

_Additional disclaimer for this chapter – I don't own the originals of any of the songs parodied in this chapter (a list of the originals is at the bottom for those who don't recognise them due to the rather enthusiastic changing of the words)._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 14 – Without Accompaniment<strong>

_In which songs are butchered by Max (and others), and there are a few new faces._

It was mid-morning, and it was a Wednesday, and it was quiet in the shop. That meant only one thing in Max's house – time for him and Ray to put on their shop-assistants aprons and start sorting out the storeroom. Today was extra special, as it was the first time that Kenta and Benkei had been allowed to join. The shop really didn't need four people running it, but Kenta and Benkei had asked if there was something they could do to help, and frankly Mr Tate hadn't had the heart to tell them that Max and Ray were all the help he needed, thank you.

"_Big purple turtles and cinnamon strudel_

_Beyblades and launchers and mustard with noodles_

_Things that make Dad smile, and birdies that sing_

_These are a few of my favourite things!"_

"Max, what on earth are you doing to that poor song!" Ray exclaimed, coming out of the store room with a box of attack rings in his arms. "_Big purple turtles_ indeed."

"Oh, come on, Ray, it's just a bit of fun," Max protested. "You have a go."

"You really think I'm going to do something as silly as that?" Ray arched an eyebrow and managed to both look and sound exactly like Kai for about three seconds before cracking up laughing and dumping the box down on the counter. "What song should I do?"

"I dunno, anything you can make up new words to."

"_The Beyblades on the bus go spin, spin, spin..." _Ray began, but Max had already started shaking his head, laughing.

"Not when Hilary's on there!" he crowed. "Then they just go _bounce, bounce, bounce_ and everyone else on the bus hides under their seats!"

"True," Ray grinned, before noticing the expressions on the faces of the other two helpers. "Don't worry, it's a very long story."

"Right," Kenta said carefully, scrambling up onto the counter to dig around in the box. "Hey, cool! I found a black one!"

"Really?" Ray leaned over to see. "Ooh, I've never seen one of those before, Max. Are they specials or something?"

"They might be old stock," Max said. "Where was the box?"

"Just on the end of one of the piles."

The blonde-haired boy shrugged. "Must just be an old batch. When everyone was mad about the Zeus blade we sold a lot of black attack rings, but they stopped selling a little while ago. Shame, really, as they're really strong. Dad used to say it was because of the colour, but I figured they were just made of a higher grade plastic. Then the metal ones appeared, and after that no-one wanted the plastic ones any more."

"Why are you selling them then?" Benkei asked.

"Mostly as collectibles," Max admitted. "There's some of the newer pieces out back that we just got delivered the other day which we'll start selling as soon as we work out what everything is."

Kenta and Benkei grinned at each other. "You've got just the people for the job, then!" Kenta exclaimed. "We're experts! We once won a whole competition because we knew what all the parts were and how to change them over."

Max's expression was more than slightly relieved. "Thank goodness," he sighed. "Dad hates the new stuff because he can't give anyone advice when they come into the shop as he doesn't know anything about them. Maybe you could tell him the stuff you know and then he might be a bit happier."

Kenta and Benkei nodded happily, just as the bell at the front of the shop rang.

"Hey!" called Kenny, poking his head around the door. "Goodness, there's a lot of helpers here today."

"Hi, Kenny!" Kenta called cheerily. "What you looking for... oh, hey Kyouya!"

The green-haired teen stomped in behind his host, looking as if he would rather be anywhere but there, until he took in the sight of box upon box of parts spilled haphazardly across the table. His eyes went very wide.

"You're joking," he breathed. "Exactly how much stuff _is_ there here?" Kenny shrugged.

"Told you we'd be able to find something here," he answered, grinned. "Hey Max, Kyouya and I had this amazing idea – what if we combined the old system we used before the HM blades with Kyouya's blade? From my data, it would make it a hundred and fifty three percent stronger than it is right now. You've still got the parts for them, haven't you?"

"Sure," Max nodded, coming out from behind the counter and going over to the table. "Can you really do that, though? I thought that their system was incompatible with ours."

"So did I," Kenny began. "But then I started running some programs on Leone and there's certainly parts where it can be improved. It shouldn't even take too much remodelling."

Max was rummaging through the pieces scattered across the table. "Ugh, I wish I hadn't just thrown everything into one box when I was tidying up last time," he grumbled as he searched. "What exactly are you looking for, Kenny?"

"Um..." Kenny looked at Kyouya, who shrugged. "Attack rings, I think. Maybe a stronger core would be good too. Oh, and if you've got any, can they be from balance types?"

Ray exchanged a slightly confused look with Kenta, but wandered over to join the little huddle. "Balance types? But isn't Kyouya's Leone a defensive type?"

"Yeah, but trust me, I know what I'm doing." Kenny was grinning, and the other two G-Revolutions members looked a little unsure of what this could mean. However, it didn't stop them from digging into the pile of attack rings, clips, bit-chips and weight discs to find suitable material for this great plan of Kenny's.

It took a lot longer than they expected, mostly because Max had declared that whilst there were so many people and so few customers in the shop, they had to sort out all of the mixed boxes into where they should go. About an hour after they had started, Mr Tate stuck his head around the store-room door to find his son and his son's friends still hunting through the parts. Smiling to himself, he set a tray of drinks and snacks at the other end of the table, which the bladers helped themselves to without ever looking up (except the ever-polite Ray, who absently thanked him as he sorted a pile of engine gears into size-order). The boys could get so involved when it came to blading, Mr Tate thought to himself. It was their love, their life. The walls in the house were thin enough that he could often hear Max talking at night, not to Ray but to Draciel. Their bond was so strong, perhaps even closer than that between Max and his father. But that was the life Max had chosen, and as it was Max's choice he was more than happy to watch his son now helping the next generation to find and keep that same passion.

Kyouya leaned forwards and pulled out a weight ring from the pile. "What would happen if you tried to battle without a weight ring?"

"Easy," Ray told him. "With no weight, you'd go totally off-balance. Any hit from the other blade would send you flying. Why?"

Kyouya frowned. "I was just thinking that if you had a lighter blade, you could go faster."

"True," Kenny said. "But lighter blades can't attack so strongly. That's why good balance types are so hard to find, because there'll always be a slightly tending towards attack or defence, depending on the weight."

This appeared to satisfy Kyouya, who put the weight ring down in the proper pile before picking up another handful to sort through.

"My blade's quite light," Ray said suddenly. "And it's designed to go really, really fast as well as be able to take direct hits from much stronger blades."

Kenny's face lit up. "Oh yeah, I forgot! You fought Crusher with Metal Slash! That was so long ago..."

"Have you heard anything from Crusher recently, Ray?" Max asked, tossing a broken attack ring over his shoulder into the bin without even looking. Obviously Eddie's lessons had paid off.

"Apparently he's taken Monica back to their home city now that she's well enough to not have to go into hospital every week," Ray smiled. "I'm glad she's okay."

"_Twinkle, twinkle, little blade_

_Orange juice and lemonade_

_Balance types are hard to find_

_When this song is on my mind..."_

"What?" Max spluttered, staring at Kenta, who suddenly flushed brilliant red.

"Oh, sorry," he muttered. "I didn't mean to distract you. Didn't realise I was singing it out loud."

Max shook his head, laughing. "Nah, it's fine. I'll never be able to think of that song in the same way, though."

"Sorry."

However, it seemed that someone else had overheard Kenta's impromptu musical complaint. From the office at the side of the shop, a deeper voice called out in the age-old rhythm:

"_We will, we will blade you!_

_We will, we will blade you!"_

"DAD!" Max yelled, spinning round. "Stop it! You're embarrassing me!"

Mr Tate poked his head out of the office, grinning at his furiously blushing son who was attempting to sink into the table as the other five fell about laughing. He was about to say something when the bell at the front of the shop rang again. Immediately Max was business-like and composed – at least, until he saw the visitor.

"Tala!"

The captain of the former Blitzkrieg Boys was even taller than Max remembered, but was still just as vivid. It was as if the room wasn't quite big enough for the sheer _presence_ of the Russian red-head, who strode in as if he owned the place. "Where is Kai?"

Max blinked, momentarily flustered, but it was Ray who answered, having come at Max's shout.

"Isn't he at his house?" he asked as the others clustered around to see the new arrival.

"If he was, would I be here?" Tala snapped. "I went by his house but no-one answered."

"He'll be out with Tsubasa, then," Kenta suggested, drawing Tala's attention to him for the first time. The Russian flicked his eyes up and down Kenta's small frame and raised one eyebrow.

"You're Kenta, right? Which would make you Kyouya - " he pointed "- and Benkei."

Everyone stared at Tala, wide-eyed. "That's... impressive," Ray managed at last. "Who taught you to mind-read?"

Tala gave him the most condescending look possible, though he didn't roll his eyes, unusually. "I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on everyone for the WBBA," he said. "So I need to find Kai."

"Not the BBA?" Max queried.

"WBBA. I'm one of their agents." He pulled a wallet out of his pocket, flicking it open to show them a card. "At the moment my job is making sure all the WBBA bladers are happy here."

"Cool," Kenta grinned. "Yeah, we're happy here! It's great fun getting to live with these guys, they all know so much about blading!"

"If you think that they know a lot, you are in a very sorry state," Tala informed him acidly, but the words missed the typical smirk for some reason, so maybe he didn't quite mean it this time. "But that is beside the point. I'm only here for three days, and I need to find Kai."

Ray shrugged helplessly. "You know Kai; do you really think he'd start telling us where he went just because he's a year older? We didn't even know he'd joined the WBBA until these guys arrived."

Tala rolled his eyes. "If you see him, tell him that I need to talk to him about the Russian team. They really needs a pick up, if he feels like going back to training recruits instead of playing secret agent all over the world."

"The Russian team isn't the Blitzkrieg Boys?" Kenny asked. "But if you're part of the WBBA..."

"I'm too old," Tala said, rather quieter than he had been speaking previously, and suddenly they saw it. He was as fierce and abrasive as ever – this was Tala after all – but some of the fire had been missing.

Or rather, the ice.

"Tala..." said Ray slowly. "Tala, why isn't Wolborg with you?"

Tala actually flinched.

"Wolborg's gone."

"Gone?" echoed six voices around the room.

"When?" Max asked, face pale.

"Two months ago. Worst nineteenth birthday present ever."

_Nineteen._

It was as if the temperature in the room had suddenly dropped. "N-nineteen?" Ray stammered.

"Ever wondered why there's so few adult bladers?" Tala said quietly. "The bit-beasts won't communicate with anyone over the age of eighteen." He snorted suddenly, though his eyes were strange and sad. "Except Hiro. He found one of those synthetic beasts locked away in a rock, and the poor thing was so confused it thought he was younger than he was. But their connection is nothing like mine and Wolborg's was."

Ray, at seventeen, felt his heart pounding. Was that why he had been chosen as Driger's bearer so young? Because if they had waited any longer, he wouldn't have been able to connect so deeply with him? "You can't talk together at all?"

"Wolborg's still there." Tala almost grimaced as he spoke. "But... we can't blade together as we used to. It's like we're just... friends, not soul-mates." There was a long pause before he spoke again. "It hurts."

By now, the room had lost almost all of the cheerful vibrancy it had held when Tala walked in. Kyouya, Ray and Benkei all had their hand clasped around their blades, and the red-head noticed.

"_You're_ okay," he spat at the visitors, suddenly vicious. "The constellations are bound forever, until they're passed on, though you have to be young for them to accept you. But the Sacred Beasts? They're a bit more selective about who they'll talk to."

"Why didn't my research show this?" Kenny asked, horror etched across his face. Tala shrugged.

"It's not been long since the bit-beast wielders started getting old enough for it to be noticeable. And computers aren't very good at measuring the bond between blader and beast."

"I bet Dizzi could have done it," Kenny said miserably, and Kenta hugged him, unable to bear the looks on the faces of the G-Revolutions.

"So..." Max swallowed. "So you have to find Kai to tell him?"

Tala let out a bark of laughter. "He already knows. Nah, I just have to tell him that he and Tsubasa are needed back at headquarters for the next mission."

"You really are like secret agents, then?" Kenta asked, jumping on the opportunity to change the subject. Again, Tala shrugged.

"We get the training and the missions, but there's a decided lack of gadgets and girls," he explained. "I really do have to find him."

"Try the parks, or along the river," Max suggested. "Or just look up and hope. Kai likes high places."

Tala nodded shortly and turned on his heel, but Ray started forward with a half-formed protest and he halted.

"You were being serious about the... the bit-beast thing, weren't you?" he asked, as if desperately hoping this was all some horrible joke. But Tala's closed eyes and set jaw told him before the nod did that his hope was – for want of a better word – hopeless.

Tala closed the door behind him, and for a long moment everyone in the shop just watched him walk away down the street. Kyouya, Kenta and Benkei were very carefully avoiding the eyes of their hosts, who in turn were staring into space, all lost in thoughts that they would never have even conceived in their worst nightmares.

That one day – and not just "some" day, but a specific day, and soon – they would lose a half of their hearts.

It was mid-afternoon, and it was a Wednesday, and it was silent in the shop.

* * *

><p><em>AN – and a special appearance by the Blitzkrieg Boys (or one of them at least)! You wouldn't believe how many requests I got to put him in... And much as I like the Russian team in Metal Masters, they would get_ thrashed_ by the Blitz Boys if they met. I doubt that proud, fierce, loyal Tala would be too impressed that his country was being represented by people who prized intellect over blader-spirit, and cheated to get to where they were. I also doubt that he'd have appreciated that_ another_ evil mastermind sort of person was controlling them, because he knows where that leads._

_Hope to be back to the normal update schedule now, but like I said, I've got loads of new ideas and a new fandom to write for as well, so expect lots of new stories to be appearing too.  
><em>

**_Originals of the songs in this chapter_**

_My Favourite Things (The Sound of Music)_

_The Wheels on the Bus (traditional children's song)_

_Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (traditional children's song)_

_We Will Rock You (Queen)_


	15. A New Beginning

_More delays... _

_Many thanks to everyone who has alerted/favourited this story, as well as all the reviewers! I'm constantly amazed at how popular this is becoming._

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><p><strong>Chapter 15 – A New Beginning<strong>

_In which Yuu makes an ice-cream._

It was a perfect Wednesday afternoon, warm and sunny with just a slight hint of a breeze. Madoka sighed happily as she set her glass down on the patio table, determined to enjoy the day as much as she could.

So far, she had been having a wonderful time. It was fun to spend time with another girl who knew what her situation was, and even though Hilary didn't have a blade of her own, it was clear that she was just as passionate about the game as the boys were.

Kenny had been an unexpected bonus, even managing to show her expertise up with his beautifully designed Hard Metal System. Madoka wished that she could do something so clever, but then again the G-Revolutions had been faced with an extraordinary set of opponents when Kenny had invented the HM system, and whilst Ryuga had been a fearsome enemy, what she now knew to be the Koma blades had been up to the challenge. Maybe one day, something would come along that would test her own intellect to its limit and let her create something just as spectacular. Maybe not beys; perhaps extreme stadiums that tested the bladers to the utmost.

But for now she would just enjoy the day, and stick to repairing damaged blades.

Talking of damaged blades, she was very proud of the repairs she had managed on Libra and Sagittario. Both of them had come to her with barely any usable material left on them, only the cores still intact. But now they were both at full strength again, much to the delight of Yuu and Kenta.

Indeed, Yuu was sitting cross-legged on the ground at the far end of the garden, Libra spinning steadily in front of him. He seemed to be talking to the blade, which had it been anyone else would have been very strange indeed, but Libra and Yuu were a pretty noisy partnership, so perhaps it was excusable. After his battle with Max, Yuu had spent a long time hovering over Madoka's shoulder as she meticulously cleaned out all of the sand that had filled the blade, and she knew from the eager way he had almost snatched Libra back from her when it was done that he was more than eager to find another opponent. Unfortunately for him, Hilary was no blader.

That was a good point, actually.

"Hilary?"

"Hmm?" The other brunette was lying on the grass, sunbathing.

"Have you ever had a blade?"

Hilary rolled over and looked up at the patio. "No, not really. Why?"

"Just wondering. You're so involved in the G-Revolutions that I assumed you were a blader too."

The other girl laughed. "I'm afraid not. Tyson and I are in the same class at school, and I was a real teacher's pet whilst he was the class terror. I don't know how many times I had to chase him to get him to finish his cleaning duty. But one day some scientist people who wanted to test Tyson's limits decided to kidnap me and Kenny to make Tyson chase after us. Luckily, he got us out, and ever since then I've been a sort of team coach, I suppose. A bit like you, but Kenny deals with the actual blading stuff and the computers whilst I just train them and yell at them, and support them from the bench, of course."

Madoka shook her head. "You're all so serious about blading as a team. Gingka and the others love practising, but they'll go on their own somewhere to actually do it, sometimes really far out into the wilds if it's Tsubasa or Kyouya. Those two will do anything to get stronger."

"Who's stronger?" Yuu suddenly bounced up the steps of the patio, grabbing a glass of lemonade as he jumped into the seat next to Madoka.

"We were talking about Tsubasa and Kyouya going off to train," Madoka explained. "How's Libra doing?"

"Perfect! He goes even better than he did before!" Yuu grinned. "And Ryuga did it too – Doji told me. Going off to train, I mean. And he got really strong - maybe I'll do it too!"

"But what would Kenta do without you?" Madoka asked, laughing.

"Ah, Kenchi would be fine," Yuu scoffed. "No, I know! We'll go practise together! Then we'll both get really strong! Is there any ice-cream?"

Hilary laughed too. "Of course – we got some yesterday, remember? Top drawer of the freezer. Bring three spoons, please? I want some too!"

Yuu disappeared with surprising speed into the kitchen, and Madoka turned back to Hilary. "Would... would you like me to make you a blade?" she asked.

Hilary's eyes went very wide. "Wh-what?" she stammered.

"It's easy enough. I've got all the parts here, so it should only take me an hour or so."

Hilary bit her lip and looked at her glass of lemonade. "I... I thought you had to have a special connection with your blade?"

Madoka pushed her hand through her hair. "Sort of. I mean, I can't make something like the Koma blades just out of the bits and pieces here, so it won't have a constellation inside it, and I'm not sure how the bit-beasts get into the blades, but if they're not there at the beginning I suppose you wouldn't have one of them either, and it's the beast you have to bond with, really."

"I... I guess..." Hilary said, then blushed. "Um, could it be silver and red?"

"Yeah, sure," Madoka grinned. "But why?"

"Oh, no reason. Yuu! Where did you find that... oh, forget it."

Yuu had just emerged from the house, carrying three spoons in one hand and balancing not one but _three_ tubs of ice-cream as well as a box of cornets in the other.

"How?" Madoka managed to splutter around her laughter. Yuu just shrugged.

"Just one flavour is boring and stinky," he explained. "Three's much better."

And he proceeded to build what looked like a tower of ice-cream in different colours in his cornet. Hilary shook her head and confiscated one of the spoons to make herself and Madoka a considerably smaller one each, whilst Madoka went inside to fetch her mechanic's kit.

"Can you even get that in your mouth?" she asked when she came back out to discover that the tower now reached above Yuu's head.

"Of course I can," he scoffed, and set about it. Madoka and Hilary shared a look, and moved Madoka's kit to the other end of the table.

Madoka settled down to work. This blade would be different to most of the ones she worked with, because she would be building it from scratch. Now, Hilary wasn't an experienced blader by all accounts, and so giving her a very powerful blade to begin with would be a mistake. It would have to be something that could forgive mistakes by its owner, but which could still pack a reasonable punch so that it could win battles. Attack types were too volatile, she decided, so perhaps some mixture of defence and stamina? But Kyouya's Leone was the only defensive bey she could think of with the ability to attack at the level she wanted, and she didn't want to copy the green bey.

Hmm. Building a bey from scratch was going to be harder than it looked.

Well, Hilary had asked for it to be silver and red, and though she could paint it later, it might be worth her while checking which parts she already had in silver and red.

Slowly, a pile of bits began to assemble in front of her, mostly in the required colours but with some that simply looked right with the others. Yes, with a defensive tip she could get all the absorption of attacks that Hilary would need, and then if she combined stamina and attack types for the rest of the parts, she could make quite a decent balance-type blade that should suit Hilary as a beginner. After all, Madoka decided, it was easy enough to modify blades when necessary, and adding power shouldn't be any problem at all.

She was dimly aware of the phone ringing in the house, and Hilary going to answer it, but carried on piecing the blade together, using her most delicate tools now that she was sure of what she was doing. Everything was falling surprisingly neatly together. Performance tip and spin track first, then the fusion wheel and energy ring on top, carefully selected to fit together, and with all of the inner workings just as painstakingly chosen. Just as she was about to pick out a face-bolt from the seven or eight she had available, someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Madoka?" Hilary was standing next to her awkwardly. "Um, that was Max on the phone. He's asked if everyone can meet at the dojo at five; apparently he's got something really important to say. He sounded really strange, too, so I think there's something funny going on."

"You want to go now?" Madoka asked, pushing her working-glasses back so that she could see properly.

"Not right now, but soon. If _Max_ is sounding strange, I want to know why."

"Ray didn't say anything when I went with him to Garland's house on Monday." Yuu, it seemed, had finished his ice-cream mountain and had taken the boxes back. He was sitting on the patio, Libra once again spinning in front of him, but he was watching Madoka rather than the blade. "So it must be something recent. I wonder what it is."

"I have no idea," Hilary admitted. "Max wouldn't say anything and and that's not like him at all." It was clear that she was getting worried.

Madoka nodded. "I can have this fellow finished in the next five minutes, and we can go straight after that."

Hilary slid into the seat beside her. "You've nearly finished him? Wow. He looks great!"

The mechanic beamed at the praise. "I've never made an entire blade like that before. He doesn't have the power of a constellation, let alone a bit-beast, but he'll let you have a go at blading like the others, at least."

"That'd be fun," Hilary sighed. "It's a shame there aren't more girls involved in blading. I mean, there's _Ming-Ming, _but even if she's not as bad as she used to be I still can't stand her. Other than that, there's just Julia, Mathilda, Mariah and Emily on the old teams. Oh, and Mariam and Selina, but I haven't seen those two in years."

"I can't think of any girls who blade now," Madoka agreed, picking up a tiny screwdriver and applying it to the red face-bolt she'd chosen. "I mean, Hikaru's had to give up because she couldn't handle what Ryuga did to her, and I'm not really a blader; I'm the mechanic and that's how I like it. There! All done! Why don't you go and try him out?"

Hilary took the small silver blade with surprising caution. "I... maybe I'll wait until I can talk to the others before I try." Then her expression brightened. "At least then I can show them that I actually have a blade that's mine!" At the confused expressions on the faces of Madoka and Yuu, she laughed and explained, "The last time I used a bey, it was Kenny's, and he's got a spring on the bottom of his which makes it really difficult to control, not that I realised that at the time."

"Well, there's no springs on this one," Madoka smiled. "Go on, just launch him once."

Hilary hesitated for a second longer, then dashed into the house. When she returned, she was carrying a very curious-looking launcher that looked very much like a sort of magic wand with a star at the top. Madoka tried to stifle her laughter, but unfortunately Hilary noticed.

"Yeah, I know," she sighed. "Just ignore it."

Taking the silver blade from Madoka, she slotted it into the launcher with what looked like practised ease. Both of the visitors saw her take a deep breath and settle into the familiar basic stance of a blader about to launch.

"Let it rip!"

Yuu squeaked and dived under the table, and Madoka was quick to follow. Hilary's new blade zipped over their heads, ricocheting off of the garden fence, tearing through several flowerpots and garden ornaments, blasting holes in the ground wherever it landed,and eventually smashing through the greenhouse to a halt.

There was a very long pause.

"Oops," said Hilary.

After a moment to make sure that it was absolutely safe, Yuu and Madoka slowly clambered out from under the table. Hilary had the decency to blush as they stared at her and the devastation of the garden.

"Um... maybe you shouldn't do that again," Yuu suggested, holding up a lacerated plastic flowerpot. "Blades aren't toys."

"I know, I know... Am I really that bad?"

"You're not _bad_," Madoka said kindly. "You're just... not very accurate. Maybe we should talk to the others."

"Guess so." But Hilary still looked slightly miserable. "You know, I'd always thought it was the spring that made it go all... _bouncy _like that, but maybe not."

Yuu patted her arm consolingly. "Betcha Tsubasa and Gingy could teach you some stuff to keep your blade on the ground. Let's go ask them."

So, leaving the clearing up for later, the three of them headed off to the dojo, Hilary still possessively clutching her new blade.

* * *

><p><em>AN: Just realised that "cornet" is a British word in this context – it's not the instrument, it's a cone-shaped wafer for holding ice-cream. As I'm not sure what that might be called in other places, I've left it as "cornet"._

_I shall give up on promising regular updates because this is the second time that I've failed on that count. Whilst it seems that my muse and/or plot-bunnies are back from their various extended holidays, this may be only temporary. I can, however, assure you that this is planned right to the end, just not written in full, and so neither this nor any of my other stories will be left incomplete without very good reason._


	16. The Heart of the Matter

_Super-long chapter! And with this, the story edges above 40,000 words._

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><p><strong>Chapter 16 – The Heart of the Matter<strong>

_In which Kai is grumpy, mostly._

Tyson was edgy.

This was an extremely unusual state of affairs and he didn't like it one bit. Max had called him about half an hour ago and asked if he and Ray could use the dojo to hold a G-Revolutions meeting. Maxie never asked about stuff like that – everyone knew that the Granger's dojo was pretty much open access to any blader who wanted to use it as a meeting-place, a place to crash for the night, a place to hang out, a place to get a good meal and a (possibly unwanted) martial-arts lesson from Grandpa... Max had never bothered to call before.

And now Max and Ray were sitting silently in the dojo, both unusually pale. Daichi had already asked them if they'd seen a ghost, and Ray's gloomy response of "I wish," had set alarm bells ringing in Tyson's head. Kenny, newly arrived, was setting up his laptop, whilst Kenta and Benkei were sitting awkwardly at the side with Kyouya and Gingka. No-one was meeting anyone else's eyes.

They were still waiting for Kai, Hilary and their respective guests. Tyson had privately been very impressed by the speed at which Gingka had managed to get hold of Tsubasa on the phone, and through him to Kai. What was even more impressive was that as soon as Ray had taken over the conversation and said something very fast about Tala having nineteen bit-beasts or something like that, Kai had almost immediately agreed to come.

"Hey!" called Hilary, striding into the dojo, pausing only to remove her shoes. "Guys, look what I've got!"

She was holding out her hand with something silvery and very familiar-looking on her palm. Out of the corner of his eye, Tyson saw that Max and Ray were looking interested despite themselves. Seconds later, he jerked back, having finally realised what Hilary was holding, and tripping over Daichi in his hurry to back away.

"Where on earth did you get that?" Max gasped.

"You actually found a shop willing to sell one to you?" Tyson muttered, getting up and rubbing at his elbow where he'd hit it on the floor. Ray frowned at him.

"That wasn't nice, Tyson. That was just once, and it was because of BEGA and their card system, you know that."

"Madoka gave him to me!" Hilary explained, ignoring Tyson. "She built him for me today! Isn't he wonderful?"

Max held out a hand to have a look at the blade, but Kenny beat him to it. "This is... really solid workmanship," he breathed, then coloured. "I mean, workwomanship." Still red, he passed the blade on to Max.

Madoka shrugged. "I just thought it was strange that Hilary didn't have a blade when she's been around you lot for so long and clearly loves blading so much, are you following me?"

Tyson nodded slowly. "But has she launched it yet?"

Hilary flushed and looked at the ground. "Yeah... it went about as well as it did when I had Hopper."

"Ha!" Tyson exclaimed. "See? Told you it wasn't a good idea!"

"Tyson!" Ray scolded. "I'm sure that with some training she'll be a fine blader." Then he seemed to hear the words coming out of his own mouth. "Well, a reasonable one, anyway."

It was at this moment that Kai and Tsubasa strode in. Ray caught Max's eyes and immediately fell silent. The room suddenly felt uncomfortable and far too small.

Tyson cleared his throat. "Okay, Max, talk."

"Um," was Max's eloquent response, and he looked down at the smooth wood he was sitting on. Tyson scowled.

"Max, you called me to ask if you could use the dojo for a meeting. First, you _never_ ask, you just turn up, and second, you sounded really weird on the phone. Something's wrong, I know it. So as you seem to think it concerns all of us, or you wouldn't have called us all here, talk."

"I-it's a bit difficult to know where to begin," Ray said, rather hoarsely. "We only found out ourselves about three hours ago when Tala turned up at the shop."

Kai's head suddenly snapped up. "Tala came to the shop?"

"Oh yeah," Benkei said, perking up. "He said he was looking for you or something."

"What was Tala doing around here?" Tyson asked, apparently not hearing Benkei.

"He said he was looking for Kai," Max confirmed. "But... he didn't seem quite right. You know how he's always so proud and confident?" The G-Revolutions nodded, as did Tsubasa, confusingly. "Well, he... he wasn't."

"He's lost Wolborg," Ray said, with the expression of someone who knows that they're about to go through a hellish experience and just want it over and done with as quickly as possible. "He said it was on his nineteenth birthday."

Tyson's face grew concerned and sad. "Oh no," he sighed. "That's terrible. Is there nothing anyone can do to get Wolborg back?"

Ray shook his head, and looked back at the dojo floor. Hilary frowned, clearly puzzled.

"Look, Ray, I know that the bit-beasts are important, really important, but why did you call a full meeting just to tell us that Tala had lost Wolborg? Not that I'm not upset or anything, but couldn't you have told us individually?"

It was Max's turn to shake his head. "You don't understand," he whispered. "It's not just that Tala lost Wolborg – he told us something else."

"He told you that when any blader turns nineteen, they'll lose their bit-beast too," said Kai quietly, almost miserably, and Max and Ray nodded.

"He said there's nothing that'll bring them back," Kenny murmured. "They're there, but they're just out of reach... so you can feel them... what did he say? They're like friends, not soul-mates."

Tyson was as white as a sheet, his dark eyes very wide. "No," he breathed, and his right hand closed over the box on his left arm that held Dragoon. "No, that can't be true! Hiro... Metal Driger... we'd have heard from the others, _surely..."_

"Metal Driger got it wrong," Kenny said bitterly. "I did some more research. Metal Driger is an echo of the proper Driger, from years and years ago when the Saint Shields' tribe first tried to capture all the bit-beasts. It was left in a rock buried in the desert for years and years and in all the heat it got confused when it felt itself being uncovered and linked to the first person it found. I... I guess it must have been lonely. It bonded with Hiro after his nineteenth birthday, so their connection isn't anything like what you have with your Dragoon."

Tyson swallowed, and then noticed that other than Hilary, with her hands over her mouth, he was the only one who had really reacted to the news. "You... you all knew this?" he stammered, looking around.

Max nodded. "Kenny and Kyouya were in the shop when Tala came by, and he said that Kai already knew. The only people we really had to tell were you, Hilary and Daichi." He gave the other visitors a quick look. "Constellations don't leave like bit-beasts do, so you're all okay."

Tyson rounded on Kai, eyes blazing furiously. "And you thought you could just slink off and not tell us what was about to happen, eh, Kai? I'm seventeen, Maxie's seventeen, Ray's eighteen in October – nineteen really isn't that far away!"

Kai remained as calm as ever. "I was going to tell you two weeks after your eighteenth birthdays. There's nothing that can be done to bring back the bit-beasts once they're gone, and are you any happier for knowing that they're going to go? Ignorance is bliss, as they say."

Ray was biting his lip, something he often did in moments of stress. "But Tyson made a good point earlier. What about the others – Robert and Spencer and the other older ones? Surely we'd have heard if they..." Suddenly he too went pale and he covered his mouth with his hand. Round it, the others just heard muttered "So that's why Gary didn't compete last year... I'm so _stupid..._ why didn't I see it – why didn't I _ask?"_

"Spencer and Robert, as you asked, have lost their bit-beasts already," Kai said grimly. "So has Crusher, and Garland's not far away from losing Apollon either. Are you really that surprised that they didn't say anything?"

"To _warn_ us, perhaps?" Tyson snapped. "If I'm going to... to lose D-dragoon, I think I want to know in advance so that I don't just _lose_ him suddenly one day!"

"So what are you going to do now that you know?" Kai snapped back. "There's _nothing_ you can do to prevent him going. Wouldn't you have been happier not knowing until later? Now you're going to live for two years knowing that every day brings you closer to the moment that you're dreading!"

Tyson opened his mouth as if to respond, and then shut it again. Of course. Kai was already eighteen – only a couple of months from his own nineteenth birthday. "Sorry, Kai. I wasn't thinking."

"No, you weren't." And Kai folded his arms and fixed his eyes on the far wall.

"What's it like?" Daichi suddenly asked. "To lose a bit-beast?"

"You've never lost Strata Dragoon, have you?" Ray said. "It's... you end up feeling... it's really hard to describe when you're not feeling it."

"It's like you know you've forgotten something, but you just can't think what it is," said Kenny, barely audible. "There's this... this gap in your thoughts, and things that used to make sense are difficult to grasp. It hurts, but... but it doesn't."

"I thought you said that Dizzi was still there," Ray said, after a moment of shocked silence.

"I don't know any more," Kenny answered, not meeting the other teen's eyes. "For all I know, she's gone forever. I... I only know she's still in there because the folder that she ended up in is still there, and it's still got data in it. But I can't open it, and I can't feel her any more, like I used to."

Gingka nodded. "It's like a cut that hasn't healed over yet, that you can't help poking at, and then regretting because that makes it bleed afresh. And it never goes away. You can't forget him; even if you're desperately hoping he'll come back one day, you're still desperately lonely."

"Pegasus," Tsubasa breathed.

Heavy silence drifted over the residents of the dojo, all of them occupied with their own thoughts. Finally, Madoka cleared her throat.

"Um... I don't mean to be rude, but... if you could find a way to open that folder and get Dizzi back, would it work with the other bit-beasts? Get them back that way too, are you following me?"

Kenny shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not nineteen yet – for all I know, she'd leave again when I got too old, and I don't think I could survive that. I've sort of got used to it now... if I lost her again, I've no idea what I'd do. Then again, I didn't really realise I'd lost her properly for a very long time."

"So," said Ray finally. "What are we going to do?"

"We can't _do_ anything," Kai sighed. "I've already told you that. All we can do is wait it out."

"But we can make sure that we get as much out of the time we've got left with them," Max argued. "I'm not going to just let Draciel slip away because I couldn't face saying goodbye. I'm going to battle with him, and win with him, and then I'll have good things to remember him by."

Ray nodded. "You've got a point there, Max. It's not as if they're going to get weaker, or that the connection will fade between us, so we should enjoy the last year or so as much as we can."

Hilary stood up. "That's decided then," she said with finality. "No giving up on your bit-beasts, guys. Remember when Ray lost Driger to the Saint Shields two years ago and you all fought so hard to get him back? We're going to fight just as hard, even if we're still going to lose in the end, because that's what we do as bladers."

"So... you're now including yourself as a blader?" Max asked with a small smile. "That didn't take long."

Hilary looked affronted. "I've got a blade, so I'm a blader," she retorted.

"Just not a very good one," Tyson grinned, though the bite in his words was softened slightly.

"It's alright, Hil," Max said. "We'll train you. Anyway, I want to see what those new-style blades are capable of."

"Oh yeah!" Kenny exclaimed suddenly. "I almost forgot I was going to show you this - Kyouya, show them your new Leone!"

The green-haired teen frowned slightly, but dug into his pocket and pulled out the green blade. All of the bladers in the room leaned forwards as he set it on his palm and held it out.

"That's... really pretty," Ray said, stretching one finger out to touch the glittering silver metal that now tipped a set of leonine fangs that protruded from the edge of the fusion wheel. "You must have finished up really fast after you got home."

"It was easy once I had the right parts," Kenny explained. "Look, I've kept the ball-base, but it's now set on one of the Hard Metal balance bases, like Dranzer Metal Spiral was. So it's capable of recovering from really strong attacks, and I've nearly doubled its own attack by adding those fangs and the extra balance!"

"What about the core?" Tsubasa asked. "Is it Hard Metal or our type?"

"Both," Kenny said proudly. "Gears from our old Engine Gear system, built into the Hard Metal System, then encased in the core from the original Leone. It's really strong, and really fast – oh, and it will even stabilise in the air if it's thrown up by another attack. It'll always land correctly, just like a cat, even if it's coming down upside down!"

Tsubasa and Madoka both looked very impressed. Kyouya seemed to have settled for a combination of grumpy and smug.

"Leone's still getting used to being in the new blade," he said suddenly. "I need to put him through a lot more training."

"Was that a challenge?" Ray asked with a grin. "Because if it was, I'll take you on. It's about time that the Lion and the Tiger fought to decide who is the true King of the Jungle."

"You might be King of the Jungle," Kyouya snarled, but his eyes were sparkling with delight, "But the Lion is the true King of Beasts."

"But the Tiger has the mark of the King on his head," Ray shot back, now smiling happily. "Driger and I will cut you down to size. If I'm going to get as much time with Driger as I can, I might as well start now." He scrambled to his feet and darted over to the door, glancing back to make sure Kyouya was following him. "We'll go to the park," he suggested. "I'm used to fighting in the big stadiums from the BEGA challenge, so the size of the dish won't give anyone an advantage."

"Why don't we all go?" Daichi piped up. "Ray's an awesome blader, I wanna see what Kyouya can do against him."

The others all looked at each other. "I don't see why not," Hilary said. "It won't take too long, will it? We'll be back in time for dinner."

"Easily," Ray laughed. "If that's our curfew, then we'll get two battles in at least."

Gingka was fidgeting slightly as he sat cross-legged on the floor, and suddenly burst out "Then I want to battle someone too!"

All of the visitors stared at him, eyes wide with shock. After a long moment, Madoka said, very gently, "But Gingka, you... you don't have a blade any more."

But Gingka's eyes were shining. "I borrowed one," he said proudly, digging in his pocket and pulling out what was, to the G-Revolutions at least, a very familiar blade. "This is Tyson's blade, and he's let me use it."

Kenta scooted across the floor, eyes wide. "Um, Gingka," he hissed. "Everyone's just been saying that they should stay close to their constell- I mean, their bit-beasts. Maybe you should give it back."

Gingka's eyes went wide with horror, and he immediately held out Metal Storm to Tyson, but the other shook his head.

"Nah, it's okay. I know I'll get him back from you, after all, and if Kai's right I'm going to need some practise being separate from Dragoon. You can keep hold of him for a few more days."

A huge smile broke across Gingka's face. "You're awesome, Tyson! Great, now who wants to battle me?"

"I'll battle you!" Kenta offered immediately.

"No," Gingka said, shaking his head. "Thanks for offering, Kenta, but that wasn't what I was thinking. Ever since we came here, we've had hardly any battles with these guys, and they're the World Champions. I want to battle with one of them; I bet they can teach us some really cool tricks!"

Tyson shrugged. "Well, if you're using my blade and my bit-beast I can't fight you," he mused. "And Ray's going to be fighting Kyouya, so you're left with Daichi, Max or Kai."

"I've already fought Yuu, so I don't mind sitting this one out," Max offered. "Daichi?"

"Sure!" the little redhead cheered. "Get ready, Gingka, because I'm gonna destroy you!"

But Gingka was hesitating. "No. I-I actually want to fight Kai."

Kai, slouched as normal against the wall of the dojo, slowly raised his head. Everyone else stared at Gingka as if he'd just grown a second head.

"You want to fight _Kai?"_ Tyson spluttered as a general hubbub began. "But-"

"If he wants to fight me with Metal Storm, he can." Kai's quiet declaration cut across the noise, and everyone went silent almost instantly. "After all, he is a guest."

"Kai..." Hilary began, but his eyes sharpened and she joined the silence.

"Gingka is considered to be the best of his generation of bladers," Kai said. "What better way for me to test that than by fighting him myself? And besides, if he's supposed to be the best, and he's using Tyson's blade, he can't be too different from Tyson himself, surely?" His words might have been encouraging, but his tone and eyes suggested anything but as he got to his feet. "Gingka Hagane, current bearer of Dragoon Metal Storm, I accept your challenge."

* * *

><p>The walk to the park buzzed with conversation. Yuu, Daichi and Kenta were eagerly talking with Madoka about Hilary's new blade (Daichi was especially dubious) whilst Tsubasa was holding a very serious-sounding talk with Kenny and Max about the ways that the Koma blades and the Hard Metal systems could be combined, and what sort of equipment Max's dad had in his shop to allow this. Tyson was arguing with Hilary over how long the G-Revolutions would need to wear hard hats after she joined their training sessions, and Ray, walking behind them, was trying to prevent a full-scale war from breaking out.<p>

Benkei, on the other hand, was walking along silently next to Kyouya, frowning. "Kyouya, buddy?" he said at last.

"What is it?"

"I know that they said that Tyson's Dragoon wasn't like L-Drago, but... can we trust them? I mean, I know that you'll be strong enough to deal with anything, but..."

"You mean is Gingka safe with that blade?" Kyouya filled in for him. "I don't know. All I know is that the only one who was able to control L-Drago for any length of time was Ryuga, and to overcome that power Gingka needed all of us behind him – or in front of him, I guess. So if Gingka is taken over by Dragoon, he might not be so strong as Ryuga with L-Drago, because it's not his bit-beast."

"Yeah, I see," Benkei nodded. "But what if Dragoon's stronger than L-Drago? Tyson's supposed to be stronger than Kai, and you saw what Kai did to Ryuga the other day. Who knows what kind of damage someone that powerful could do?"

"Ryuga's weak at the moment," Kyouya answered quietly. "L-Drago is damaged, and Ryuga can't trust his constellation not to turn on him, so he won't be using his full power."

"Still..." Benkei looked uncomfortable.

"But as long as everyone else is here, I reckon we can stop anything from happening if Dragoon turns out to be like L-Drago." Kyouya said firmly. "Besides, Tyson wouldn't have let Gingka borrow the blade if he didn't think he could control it. Just... just keep an eye on the battle from your side, and if you see anything that doesn't look right, stop it as quickly as you can."

Benkei's chest puffed up with pride. "Sure, Kyouya buddy!" he promised eagerly. "You can count on me!"

By this time, they were climbing the hill to the Revolution Stadium. It was deserted, like most of the park, so at least they wouldn't be disturbing too many people.

"So who's going first?" Tyson asked. "Shall we flip a coin for it?"

"Don't bother," Kai said, waving his suggestion aside. "Gingka and I can go second."

"You sure, Kai?" Ray looked slightly surprised. "That's nice of you."

Kai made no response. Gingka shrugged. "Well, I want to watch Kyouya battle, so you might as well go first. I want to see how much the new blade has improved."

Ray and Kyouya nodded, the latter giving a significant look to Benkei as he strode off to the other side of the dish. Madoka and Kenny quickly set themselves up to record and analyse the match, their computers perched on their laps. The rest of the bladers took up positions around the edge of the dish, ready to cheer their respective team-mate on.

"Come on, Ray!" Daichi called. "Show him what the White Tiger can do!"

"Kyouya! Kyouya!" Yuu cheered, jumping up and down.

"Ready, Ray?" Kyouya's eyes were shining in anticipation. "I'll beat you, no problem. No-one can defeat the King of Beasts!"

Ray was smiling too. "Don't be so sure," he warned. "Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"_Let it rip!"_

Leone sprang from its launcher and across the huge crater to slam into the side beneath Ray's feet, shaking the ground a little. Driger, on the other hand, landed near the centre, and immediately sped to the side in order to intercept the green blade. The two collided with an explosion of dust, and by the time that the bladers could see again, the blades were on opposite sides of the stadium, both racing around in an anticlockwise direction. Driger, the faster blade by far, was quickly catching up to Leone, and looked ready to make another strike, when Kyouya suddenly snapped "Stop!", and the green blade screeched to a halt, letting Driger shoot past before taking up the chase itself. Ray threw his head back and laughed.

"It's been a long time since I've seen someone pull that trick on me, Kyouya," he called. "You did it pretty well. But speed isn't everything in Driger's arsenal! Go!"

Driger spun in a tight turn and once again managed to crash into the side of Leone, which rocked away, but quickly recovered its balance thanks to the ball-bearing at the bottom. Sparks flew up as Leone responded to the attack with one of its own, straining against the grey blade for mastery. Ray's eyes were flashing dangerously.

"Roar, Leone!" Kyouya ordered. "Show this impostor why we're the Kings of the dish! _Lion Gale Force Wall!_"

The tornado whipped up to the sky, throwing Driger back across the dish to slam into the other side in a cloud of debris. Leone hung there, perfectly protected and still, waiting for any ill-judged attempt to attack.

Ray, however, was no normal opponent. His bright tigers'-eyes were tracking the Gale Force Wall, and he knew that there was no way that he could manage what Tyson had, and climb the tornado, let alone try to break it with a single strike. But he _could..._

"Driger, full speed! _Gatling Claw!"_

Driger catapulted into action, racing around the stadium at maximum speed and bouncing off of every available surface so fast that the human eye couldn't follow. Tiny sparks of lightning crackled in the air behind it, the only marker of its passage apart from the swirling of the dust as the air was forced into new currents.

Kyouya realised a second too late what Ray was doing, just as his towering tornado faltered and collapsed into nothingness. "No, Leone!"

"Hah!" Ray's laugh was explosive as Driger sprang out of thin air to crash once more into Leone, this time hard enough to force it towards the centre. "Is that all you've got, Kyouya?"

"Never! Go Leone!"

But he didn't have any chance to recover. Driger, still flying around the dish at beyond the speed of sight, was striking Leone from every angle, producing a ferocious barrage of attacks. Had it not been for the phenomenal balance produced by the combination of the ball-bearing and the Hard Metal System parts holding it all together, Leone would have been reeling across the dish as if it were drunk.

"_Lion Gale Force Wall!"_ Kyouya cried, trying to get a moment of breathing space to recover perfect balance, but Driger was already too close and just got trapped inside the tornado with Leone, continuing to rain attacks on it until Kyouya was certain that any lesser blade would have been torn to shreds by the claws of the White Tiger.

"That was pathetic!" Ray shouted over the howling gale. "Let me show you what _real _power is! _Driger!"_

"_Leone!"_

The two gigantic cats, both green, erupted from their blades and slammed into each other, slashing and biting and pushing as they fought to gain the upper hand. Leone clawed at Driger's legs, but the armour of the White Tiger thwarted him. Driger snapped his fangs together perilously close to Leone's unprotected ear, but the Lion jerked out of the way just in time.

Madoka was staring at the display in awe as lightning lit up the clear sky and green light bathed everything. "It's... wow." was all she could say. "Just... wow."

Yuu's eyes were wide as well. "_That_ is awesome," he told Kenta,who was standing next to him. "They're so _big! _And I thought L-Drago was huge – Driger's easily as big as him!"

"Come on, Kyouya buddy!"

"Don't give up, Ray, you've got him!"

"Go, guys, go!"

Driger snarled and jumped sideways, avoiding Leone's charge and seizing the Lion's tail in his jaws as it whipped past. Leone howled with pain and spun round to deliver a punishing blow to Driger's hind leg. The Tiger stumbled slightly, unprepared for the violence of Leone's reaction. Leone was on him in an instant. Jaws snapped, claws flashed, and in the dish below the blades locked together, grinding out a firework of sparks.

Leone went for Driger's throat, but in doing so he nearly pulled his own tail off, as Driger hadn't yet let go. Yowling, the Lion rolled onto his back, pulling Driger off balance. Driger responded by letting go of Leone's tail but attacking the thin fur of Leone's exposed belly, tearing huge chunks of his mane.

But in doing so, he took his attention away from Leone's powerful hind legs. With a fierce kick, Leone dug his claws into Driger and forced him backwards. The moment he was free, he flipped himself onto all four paws and roared his defiance.

Driger snarled in response, weaving his head from side to side like a snake as he watched and waited for the split second opportunity that would give him the advantage.

Many metres below, Ray and Kyouya stared at each other from their opposite sides of the dish, blue into gold. Both were panting, clearly exhausted, but exhilarated as well. Driger's blade took up a circling motion, following the other blade around the stadium and clearly waiting for it to strike first.

When it happened, it was almost completely unexpected. Leone suddenly pounced, roaring in anger and pride, and the double blow knocked Driger onto the defensive as violent gusts of wind gathered around the dish. Kyouya's face was set in a grimace as he roared "Leone, _King Lion Tearing Blast!"_

The tornadoes that sprang up this time made the Gale Force Wall look tame in comparison. They didn't just pick up dust and sand from the dish; they snapped branches from the trees around, and droplets of water spat into the faces of the onlookers, gathered from the lake. Driger was blown backwards, right to the other side of the dish. Leone looked victorious.

But Ray wasn't down yet. Arms stretched high over his head, a bright green nimbus began to gather around him, growing more and more brilliant with every passing second. "Driger!" Ray shouted, voice whipped away by the screaming winds. The gathered light poured into the dish, swirling around the grey blade as Ray brought his clenched fists down, bolts of lightning flashing around them. "Go! _Thunder Slash!_"

Up in the air, Driger became a whirling dervish of fur and teeth and claws, surrounded by a ghostly glow as he bowled into the snarling Leone. Wind and lightning ripped the air apart like a storm, and Tyson had to grab hold of his hat as a stray gust sought to blow it into the heart of the battle.

Lion and tiger rolled across the sky, one as swift as the lightning, one with the force of the wind behind him. The blades were still grinding into each other, dazzling the eyes with fountains of fiery sparks as they locked together. The bladers on either side of the dish were fighting with all their might to gain the upper hand.

Fire and lightning, wind and earth, white and gold and green all combined together in a gigantic ball of savage fur and light. Dust rose from the dish, obscuring all sight of the blades. The two beasts in the sky tumbled head over heels biting and scratching, and suddenly one of them was just a little more balanced than the other, just a split-second steadier on his feet.

In a flash of light and a triumphant yell, it was all over. Driger vanished in a ball of green-white light as his blade flew out of the dish, and Ray just caught it in one gloved hand. It was smoking gently, and he nearly dropped the overheated metal. As the dust cleared in the wind, it was easy to see Leone spinning in the middle of the dish. Not even the attack of a tiger had been able to knock it off balance.

Seconds later, however, it began to slow, and Kyouya was forced to scramble down into the dish as it stuttered to a halt. He picked it up cautiously and then hissed as the hot metal met his fingertips.

"Ray, what happened?" Tyson gasped, running over to his friend's side. "You were winning!"

Ray shook his head. "Kyouya's even tougher than he looks," he said. "I fought to the very best of my ability, and so did Kyouya. I'm glad to have had such an opponent. In the end, it just came down to which of us was tougher, and it was him." He reached out a hand and helped to pull Kyouya out of the dish. "That was a brilliant battle, Kyouya. I'd love to fight you again someday."

Kyouya just grinned at him tiredly.

Just then, the sound of clapping made everyone turn around. Standing just behind them was an old man wearing a smart coat and a bowler hat, with a huge smile on his face.

"That was superb, boys," he cried, still applauding. "An absolutely splendid battle, I must say. You both did yourselves proud – and that was a well deserved win, young Kyouya."

Seeing the visitors' confusion, Tyson stepped in. "This is Mr. Dickenson," he announced. "He's the head of the BBA, and he's the one who organised all of you coming here."

The visitors quickly offered their own names, though of course Mr. Dickenson knew them all already, and he was soon asking them about how they'd settled in, what battles they'd had, what they thought of the different systems and all sorts of other questions. Gingka and his friends were deeply impressed by the knowledge he was displaying, as well as his obvious passion for beyblading.

Kenta in particular seemed very intrigued by this old man who was clearly so keen on blading. One day, he would be this old, and he hoped that his love for blading would still be as strong then as it was now. He could imagine how difficult it must be to sort out all the paperwork of the BBA or the WBBA, even with computers to help, and wondered just how much Mr. Dickenson loved the game in order to go through all that day after day even when he was too old to enter the competitions, and how long he spent organising competitions that had such risks attached – Kenta had heard stories from the G-Revolutions about the final battle between Tyson and Kai, and how even the audience were in danger because of the sheer elemental force being unleashed. Kenta wanted to love blading that much, so that even if he was the only one left, there would still be someone to carry on the flame and the memory of perfect matches where everything was at stake and dragons fought against immortal powers, phoenixes, _gods._

Would he and Sagittario ever be at that level?

"You've arrived just in time, sir," Tyson was saying. "Kai and Gingka are going to be battling next."

"Indeed?" Mr. Dickenson asked. "Has Gingka managed to find himself a new blade, then?"

Gingka flushed red. Did everyone know that he'd lost his beautiful white Pegasus?

"No," Tyson explained. "He's borrowed Metal Storm from me. I don't mind him using it for a couple of battles, as it's the closest thing I could find to his old blade. It'll be interesting to see Dragoon battling when I'm not controlling him, though."

"Are you sure that it will be safe?" Mr. Dickenson looked concerned. "What if the presence of his true owner makes Dragoon behave differently?"

Tyson frowned. "Oh yeah, I hadn't thought of that. It should be alright – Dragoon and Gingka have been working together for a few days now, so Dragoon should know to listen to Gingka, not me. But I'll go and sit over there, under that tree." He pointed. "Then I can see, but I should be far enough away that Dragoon won't be able to hear me."

Mr. Dickenson nodded. "Good. Well, then, I'll sit here on the bench, and then I'll be able to watch you youngsters quite happily. The best of luck to both of you."

Kai merely inclined his head to the BBA's director, whilst Gingka offered him a big smile as he trotted off to the other side of the dish. Ray and Kyouya, still very slightly out of breath, came over to stand near to Kenny, who was quickly running through the data the battle had provided.

"The remodelling worked wonders, Chief," Kyouya told him,and Kenny beamed with pride. "Thanks. Once I've had some more practise, I'll be unbeatable. You really are as good as they say you are."

By now, Kenny was blushing. "It was nothing, really," he stammered. "I mean, I'd be happy to do it for anyone else who wants it, but I'm really glad it worked out for Leone. You'll go far together, I know it."

Kyouya just grinned. "They're about to start," he pointed out, and Kenny quickly closed down the statistics program in order to prepare his computer for what promised to be another extraordinary battle.

The scarves of the two opponents hung limp in the now-windless air as they pointed their launchers at each other. "Ready?" Tyson called. "Then – three, two, one..."

"_Let it rip!"_


	17. Spark and Storm

_And we're back! I still don't own either sort of Beyblade, though. _

_I'm not going to apologise for the delay, because hopefully once you've read this chapter, you'll understand just why it took me SOOO long to write._**  
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><p><strong>Chapter 17 – Spark and Storm<strong>

_In which left-spinning beys are all the rage._

Kai immediately went on the offensive, ordering the new Metal Spark into a headlong collision with Metal Storm, which stubbornly held its ground and refused to budge. Eyes widening almost imperceptibly – he hadn't expected such strong defence – Kai answered like for like, using the sheer power of his blue blade to gradually force Metal Storm across the dish. Dust, barely settled from the previous battle, puffed up again in its wake.

"Watch out, Gingka!" Kenta yelled. "Don't let him push you out of the dish!"

Gingka's face was set as he concentrated solely on the blade that wasn't quite his. He could feel the left-spin power uncoiling, trickling through the connection between them as his mind slowly adjusted to its presence. There was such a _strangeness_ about the dragon-blade.

"Oi! Gingka!" Tyson bellowed from his seat under the tree. "Trust Dragoon! He knows what he's doing!"

Kai was taking every advantage of Gingka's need to concentrate, and had pushed Dragoon almost to the other side of the dish. "Pay attention!" he snapped. "If you want to fight me, then fight! Show me what you're capable of."

"Dragoon?" called Gingka, only a little hesitantly. "A little help here?"

The response was instantaneous. The huge, blue dragon rose in slow, majestic coils, planting his feet firmly in the air and spreading his claws threateningly. His blade stopped its slide across the dish and steadied, once more holding its ground against the blue blade before darting backwards and escaping to the other side of the dish. Gingka's friends cheered.

Something flashed across Kai's face that might have been delight, but it was gone too fast for anyone to really identify it. "So he does obey you," he murmured. "How interesting."

"Come on, Dragoon!" Daichi yelled, caught up in the moment. "Dragoons forever!"

Dragoon roared in response, his blue scales shimmering in the light.

"Dragoon, attack!" Gingka ordered, and the blade charged forwards, catching Metal Spark under the attack ring and flipping it high into the air. "Yeah! That's it!"

"Don't be so sure," Kai growled. "Dive-bomb him, Dranzer!"

The blue blade seemed to catch fire in the air, light reflecting off it in such a way that it looked like flames of the deepest blue were crowding around the attack ring. It struck Dragoon a direct hit, sending the other blade reeling across the dish. Tyson almost jumped to his feet, but restrained himself with some difficulty.

Gingka, it seemed, had a rather different approach to the game than Kai or Tyson. As Kai ordered his blade into a second, equally powerful attack, Gingka accelerated and shot away from the aggressive Dranzer, maintaining just enough distance between the two of them that the balance-type couldn't quite catch the attack-type. "Catch me if you can!"

"Well, he's certainly adaptable," Ray said, looking rather surprised. Kyouya looked askance at him.

"What do you mean?"

"All us G-Revs have used each others' blades in the past to improve our abilities with each type. The two Dragoons are attack-types, Dranzer's a balance-type, Driger's power is his speed, and of course Draciel is a defence-type. So using each different type can improve our abilities in that area. But no-one's really been able to use Dragoon as well as Tyson can, though Strata Dragoon is pretty easy to get the hang of."

Kyouya examined the now-cooling blade in his hand. "You guys think of everything."

"No," Ray laughed. "We just fight as a team instead of as individuals. All of us have to know the others' strengths inside out, and be able to complement them perfectly, otherwise the team just won't be able to pull together."

"I hadn't thought of it like that," Kyouya began, but just then there was a colossal explosion from the dish and the two looked round in time to see Gingka take a step back, shaking his head to get the ringing out of his ears.

"Uh oh," said Ray. "Once Kai thinks he's got the advantage he'll crush him into the dust. Come on, Gingka, keep it up!"

Tyson suddenly scrambled to his feet. "Watch it, Gingka!" he yelled. "You're not using Dragoon properly!"

He was right. Metal Storm was slipping and sliding down the slopes in strange zigzags, looking for all the world as if Gingka had lost control, even though it was clear that the red-head was concentrating with all his might. As Kai's blade roared up behind it again, Gingka scrambled Metal Storm out of the way very clumsily, and wheeled around, still skidding out a bit, to return the challenge. But Metal Spark had turned as well, and was racing back across the dish in a whirling dervish of dust.

The collision was inevitable, but the result was more than unexpected. As Metal Spark ground into the attack ring of Metal Storm, Dragoon suddenly let out a strange, unearthly bellow and his whole body twisted. Tyson's yell of mingled shock and pain, and the realisation that what he had just ordered the dragon-beast to do was impossible for a left-spinning blade, was enough to distract Gingka for that crucial second. Metal Spark pinned Metal Storm to the edge of the dish with no hope of escaping its talons, and with a movement more casual than a bird ruffling its feathers, flicked the white blade up and out of the dish.

There was a long moment of silence when no-one really knew what to say. Tyson was still very pale, as was Gingka. Kai looked rather disappointed.

In the end it was Mr Dickenson who broke the silence, applauding. "That was brilliant, boys," he cried. "Both of you were superb!"

"S-sorry," Gingka panted, turning to Tyson and looking truly regretful. "I forgot Dragoon was a left-spin."

"Don't worry," Tyson consoled him. "You actually made Kai stop and think for a moment, and considering that it wasn't your blade and it wasn't your beast, that says a lot for how good a blader you are."

Gingka nodded solemnly, kneeling to pick up the white blade. "This... this has made up my mind for me," he said with finality. "There's no other blade in the world that can replace my Pegasus." He held out Dragoon on his open palm. "Thank you for trusting me with him, Tyson, but I can only blade with Pegasus, and that's just how it is."

Tyson gave an answering nod. "You did really well," he said. "But it's probably best that Dragoon stays with me now. I'm certain that if you had your own blade, you'd be giving Kai a real run for his money right now, especially as his blade is designed to take out left-spinning, dragon-bearing blades like mine."

"How do you even use that thing?" Kenta asked. "I can't even imagine what it's like to have a left-spinning blade."

"It's... interesting," Gingka said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "It's like having a remote control car, but the remote is upside down. It turns to the right much quicker than to the left, which is the opposite to normal, and when it attacks it's stronger on the opposite side to normal as well."

Mr Dickenson looked interested, but not as fascinated as Madoka, who was putting her recording of the battle through a series of filters and analysis programs to study the behaviour of Metal Storm. Suddenly, she gave a frustrated cry. "Oh _no!_"

"What's wrong, Madoka?" Kenta asked, worried.

"There's not enough data to complete the analysis," she sighed. "I wanted to see if Metal Storm and L-Drago behaved in the same way, but I can't now, not with the readings I've got."

"Maybe Tyson should battle with it to show us how to really control it," Kyouya suddenly spoke up. "That would give you a chance to get proper readings of the left-spinning blade at full power."

"Yeah!" Tyson agreed immediately. "How about it, Kai?"

"Hold on a second, Tyson," Hilary warned. "It's almost dark. We don't have time for another battle."

Disappointed faces were visible all around the dish. "Oh, c'mon, Hil," Tyson pleaded. "Just one little battle?"

"No!" she said, as firmly as possible. "I know what you and Kai are like; once you get going you wouldn't stop if the world ended. I for one am getting hungry and I want to go and get some dinner."

"Then go," Tyson muttered, turning Dragoon over in his hand to check for damage. "You don't have to stay. Kai and I can battle here on our own."

Hilary's mouth opened, but Tsubasa stepped in before she could launch any sort of counter. "But where would the fun be in that?" he asked. "We all want to watch this – at least, I do."

"Me too," piped up Yuu. "But I want food as well."

"How about a short battle?" Mr Dickenson suggested. "It's nearly dark, as you said, so what about having a battle that's timed?"

"What do you mean, Mr D?" Tyson asked, looking up from his examination of Dragoon.

"A match that's timed to be exactly five minutes long," Mr Dickenson explained. "Whoever is judged to have been the best during the match will be the winner. That should be quite long enough to get a good reading. Tsubasa and... let me see... Hilary? Will you two help me judge?" At the nods of the two, he turned to Yuu. "And will you keep time for us?"

"It might be better if I did that, Mr Dickenson," Hilary said. "Yuu's likely to get distracted by the battle and before we know it we'll have a battle in the dark." Yuu scowled at her, but didn't protest.

"Very well," Mr Dickenson agreed. "Ray, will you help Tsubasa and I to judge this, then?"

"How about Kyouya instead?" Tsubasa asked. "That way Ray won't be conflicted by team ties."

Kyouya was quick to agree. "Sure I'll judge," he said with a grin. "Who knows? I might pick up some tips!"

Kai already had his blade locked into his launcher and was ready to go. "Tyson, no holding back," he growled. "We've only got five minutes, so don't even think about playing it safe."

"I have _no_ intention of doing that, Kai, trust me on this one," Tyson grinned. It was a different grin to normal, and was one that Ray and Max recognised immediately.

"Tyson and Kai have a really fierce rivalry," Max whispered to Benkei and Kenta. "Their battles are out of this world."

"Oh!" Kenta exclaimed. "Like Kyouya and Gingka, then? They'll battle any time they get the chance, and Kyouya's always trying to beat Gingka. He hasn't managed it yet."

Ray leaned into the conversation. "Kai's beaten Tyson once, about four years ago. He's never beaten him in a proper battle since, though there's been a number of ties."

"What do you think the five minute limit's going to do?" Kenta asked as Tyson took up his starting position and Hilary readied her watch.

"Kai normally wears his opponent down and then finishes them off with a single blow," Max answered. "And Tyson charges straight for the attack and just amps up the power every time he gets pushed back. So as they've got limited time we'll probably see all their most powerful moves coming out really fast. This could get exciting."

"Are you ready, boys?" Mr Dickenson called. Neither Tyson nor Kai took their eyes off each other for a second, but they nodded curtly. "Then if Hilary is ready?"

"Ready, sir!"

"On my mark, then... three, two one - "

"Let it rip!" Tyson yelled, and sent Dragoon Metal Storm rocketing into the stadium. Kai followed instantly, both blades sending up renewed clouds of dust as they raced across the dish to collide with one another at top speed.

Ray, Max and Daichi all clapped their hands over their ears and braced themselves a second before the impact, but the visitors didn't, lacking any knowledge of the way that Kai and Tyson battled. As a result, Yuu and Kenta were bowled over backwards as a gigantic wave of energy and sound erupted from the centre of the dish, mushrooming out to send ripples through the ground. Madoka gripped onto her laptop as the screen momentarily went to static, sensors overloaded by the power output of the battle.

"Keep it going, Dragoon, push him back!" they heard Tyson shout over the howling energy. In the centre of the dish, sharp-eyed Kyouya could just about make out Metal Storm and Metal Spark fighting to dominate each other as their masters strained to stand against the ripples the blades were creating in the air. Sparks were fountaining out of the point where the two met, and Kyouya saw a leaf, caught up in the vortex, go up in flames when it got a bit too close.

It seemed that Tyson was as impatient as ever to get the battle to full power, because after a couple more seconds of attacking he punched one fist into the air and shouted "Go, Dragoon! Attack!"

There was nothing slow or even majestic about Dragoon's second appearance of the day. Instead, the massive blue dragon exploded into being above Tyson's head, already diving towards the blue blade that he had so recently been defeated by. His teeth were bared in a roar so loud and guttural that it made the very air tremble, and his bright claws, each the length of a small car, flashed with a vicious edge, capable of slicing through the storm of energy with no effort at all.

But Kai was having none of it. Wind forcing the two tails of his scarf back until they were nearly choking him, he roared over the cacophony of sound, _"Go_ _Dranzer!_"

Deep within the dish, a brilliant light began to gather around Metal Spark, growing and multiplying a thousandfold with each passing second. Tsubasa screwed his eyes shut, but the light shone through, forming a kaleidoscope of fragmented shapes that gradually coalesced into one.

He opened his eyes as the light died, blinking away the light-spots that had formed, and saw a huge golden curve arching in front of him. Just beyond it were two more, equally huge. They stretched halfway across the dish, where they ended in cruel points that glinted in the light from the sparks below.

Tsubasa tilted his head as a thought occurred to him, and his mouth fell open.

It was Kai's bit-beast, and it was _enormous._

Blood-red, fire-red, it lifted its massive sunrise wings, making them swell with air to blow away the dust and smoke of battle. Fierce, golden eyes blazed, set under red-gold brows. Golden armour plated the chest, the joints, the head – all of the beautiful, magnificent, _lordly_ creature who stood as a flaming shield between Kai and the ferocious blue dragon. A mane of white hair like that of a lion cascaded down the back of its neck, tiny flames licking through it but never harming it.

Tsubasa stared at the phoenix as though awakening from a dream of magic and miracles to find everything in the dream has come to life. Eagle was strong and beautiful, and was his true, constant companion, but Dranzer was something else entirely. In all his months of training under Kai, Tsubasa had never even seen Dranzer's full form. Very occasionally, near the end, Kai had called out a figure made of flames, but that was it. Clearly Tsubasa wasn't as good as he had thought he was, if he had never faced up to the full might of the phoenix.

"_Blazing Gig Tempest!_"

Dragoon was pinned under Dranzer's sharp claws as Metal Spark drove Metal Storm back a full foot. The dragon bellowed and, at the command from Tyson, exerted all his strength to throw the phoenix off his back. Dranzer swung around, wings extended and primaries flaming, but Dragoon was already on the attack.

"_Go Evolution Storm!"_

"He's not wasting any time!" Ray yelled to Benkei and Gingka, who stood close to him. "That's Tyson's most powerful attack!"

Dragoon gathered himself into a run, which turned into a flat-out charge. There was no way that Dranzer could evade the oncoming dragon. The phoenix was blown backwards in the onrush of the blue hurricane, barely managing to remain upright as gusts of wind ripped leaves and branches from the trees around, and picked up the ones that the earlier battle between Kyouya and Ray had torn down. Kai flung his arms up defensively as the debris whipped past him, drawing thin lines of blood wherever they struck.

"Kai!" Yuu shrieked. "Be careful!"

Madoka's computer screen was filling with flashing red icons as the power levels took another surge. Suddenly, she gave a small, sharp scream. "I don't believe it - Dranzer's going _left!"_

She was right. Unnoticed by all but the computerised sensors of the two laptops, Kai's blade had switched rotations and was attacking from the opposite direction. Kenny's fingers flew over the keyboard as he analysed the situation, trying to come up with some kind of explanation for the impossible feat.

Tyson, on the other hand, seemed less impressed. Panting, hat long lost in the ferocious winds, he drew himself up to his full height and ordered his blade onward. "Dragoon, take him down!"

Metal Storm smashed into Metal Spark and sent it reeling drunkenly across the dish. Dragoon had wrapped around Dranzer and was pulling the phoenix to earth with what seemed like no effort at all. Wings pinned, Dranzer could do little more than struggle wildly, and in vain.

"Yes!" Gingka cheered. "Go Tyson!"

But Kai didn't even seem to care that his bit-beast was being dragged down to the ground. His hair streamed in the wind from the battle, forming weaving flames in the air. Slowly, a glow of deep red began at his feet, spiralling up his body until he was completely wrapped in a cocoon of bright energy.

Silence pressed around them for all of three seconds, then with a catastrophic explosion, brilliant flames burst from Kai's blade, reaching across the entire stadium and dragging Metal Storm towards the blue blade that was now spinning so fast that it was beginning to rise on its own updraught, drawn into a miniature tornado it had built.

Ray suddenly gasped. He knew what was happening. It seemed that not only had Kai beaten Brooklyn all those months ago, he had learned from him. This was the same move that Brooklyn had pulled on Kai the very first time, but it seemed ten times more powerful now. Metal Storm was sucked right underneath the blue blade that was falling with immense velocity. It smashed into Metal Storm as Dranzer's eyes flamed to blinding brightness. The fire-bird gave a screech which echoed in the empty air, and forced Dragoon's coils apart, wings spreading to cover the sky. Before Tyson could recover, Dranzer spun on a wing-tip to attack, striking again and again at the blue dragon.

Dragoon slashed at his attacker with those fearsome claws, tearing off feathers that fell like fiery rain to the ground. Kenta caught one, a look of awe on his face, and immediately dropped it when he felt how hot it was.

"Oww!"

Both beast had their claws locked together now, grappling to overturn each other as their blades clashed far below. It was a complete deadlock.

"You've got thirty seconds!" Hilary warned, shielding her eyes from the swirling debris. "Keep it up, both of you!"

Kai's eyes burnt with the same fire that lit up his bit-beast. "Dranzer, take him down!"

"Don't let him get you, Dragoon!"

Two pillars of light shot up from the dish, one deep blue, the other fierce red. They twisted about each other as they rose, billowing smoke covering the dish in their wake. Within the pillars, those who knew what they were looking for could just make out the occasional flash of a claw or flick of a feather as Dranzer and Dragoon fought on, their battle titanic, elemental, and eternal. The lights that carried the bit-beasts carried on upwards, until all that could be seen against the darkening sky was a single, brilliant star that outshone all the others.

Then it winked out.

"STOP!" Hilary bellowed, though it was perhaps unnecessary as the two blades had separated and the wind had died down. With a lopsided smile that was almost a smirk, Kai recalled Dranzer.

"That was a good match, Tyson," he said. "Though it's lucky for you that Hilary called stop when she did, or I'd have beaten you."

"Oh yeah?" Tyson responded, catching Metal Storm and closing his fingers over it. "What makes you think that?"

Kai, infuriating to the end, refused to answer, returning to his usual aloof manner.

Mr Dickenson looked at Tsubasa and Kyouya. "What did you think, boys?" he asked with a smile.

Kyouya was staring at Tyson and Kai in open disbelief as they walked towards the judges. "How...?" was all he managed to say.

"And you thought your rivalry with Gingka went a long way," Tsubasa murmured. Kyouya nodded, not even looking at him.

"That was a totally different level of battle to anything I've ever seen," he said at last. "Except perhaps Ryuga versus Gingka, though I wasn't really there for that much of it. How are you meant to judge something like that?"

"The last time that these two had a battle which needed to be judged, we tried to give them a draw and they just got right back up and started another battle to make sure there was a winner," Mr Dickenson said mildly. "Though you're right, Kyouya. Both of them fought exceptionally well,and both of them deserve to win."

"Then who did?" Kai's voice broke over the top of them. His hair was matted with sweat and dust, and tiny runnels of red were trickling down his arms where the debris had caught him at the end. "You've got three judges – even if you all try to pick different people, there's only two of us."

Mr Dickenson smiled. "Kyouya, who do you think should win?"

Kyouya blinked, then took a deep breath. "For the sheer amount of power in his attacks, I think it should be Kai."

But Tsubasa was shaking his head. "Did you see how easily Tyson pushed Kai back when he tried? When Dragoon caught Dranzer it would have been Tyson's victory if Kai hadn't fought back exactly when he did. It was timing on Kai's part rather than power. I think Tyson certainly had the stronger attack, and a good solid defence as well. For a balance blade, Kai was doing a lot of attacking and not much of anything else, so he's not working with the full potential of his blade." He glanced sideways, and to his surprise and pleasure, saw a tiny smile tilt one corner of Kai's mouth up. This was exactly the sort of battle and blade analysis that Kai had taught him, and Tsubasa was proud to see that Kai was appreciating his efforts to remember and use his lessons.

"You've got the last word, Mr D," Tyson said. "Which one of us is the champ?"

Mr Dickenson shrugged. "I honestly don't know, boys. That was an extraordinary battle, and I don't think that either of you should be ashamed of calling it a draw."

Kai rolled his eyes. "You just don't want us to argue, do you, Mr Dickenson?"

The old man shook his head, still smiling. "You're both superb bladers, Kai, and considering that the match was only five minutes long you both showed a phenomenal amount of power and potential. You just keep getting stronger, the two of you, and I think you should treasure the fact that both of you will always have a wonderful opponent in the other. If one of you started winning all the time, it would take all the fun out of it, I think."

He didn't see how Kai's expression had faltered at the word "_potential",_ but Max did. Of course. What use was it getting stronger and stronger, and having fiercer and fiercer battles, if you were going to lose the one thing that allowed those battles to happen in only a few months' time?

"Well, I'm heading home," Mr Dickenson said. "Max, Ray, would you and your visitors like a lift? I'm planning to drop by the shop on my way back."

"Sure," Max smiled, hiding any trace of his true feelings. "Benkei, Kenta – come on, let's get going. See you tomorrow, guys!"

"Bye!" Hilary called, waving. Madoka slowly got to her feet, computer cradled in her hands.

"I've just run the battle through a tester," she said breathlessly. "In just those five minutes of battle, Kai and Tyson's blade produced more than enough energy to power the whole of Tokyo for a _year."_ Shocked, Gingka looked across at Kyouya, only to find the other blader staring right back. Both of them acknowledged the thought in the other's eyes.

_One day, we will battle like that, and then we shall see..._

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><p><em>I've had a number of reviews asking to put more battles in, and as all the characters are bladers this does seem sensible, considering that early on there were not very many battles at all. However, writing a battle convincingly, and making it different from all the other battles, takes a long time, and will take longer as more and more battles appear, as they will do from here on. Particularly impressive battles, such as the two in this chapter, take a <em>very_ long time to write._

_I will reiterate what I said in an earlier chapter – the whole of this story is planned out and so it will not be abandoned under any but the most extreme circumstances. All the same, updates will not be regular due to the fact that I want this to be a story I can be proud of writing, and that means spending a long time getting it as good as I possibly can._


	18. Understanding

_Thank you for waiting! Some of you may know that I entered the **Masters of Metal** fanfic competition with **Stories From A Bunk Bed**, which I spent most of last month writing. Hence the delay. _

_However, this chapter also marks the date exactly a year and a day since I uploaded my first fic. I've had fun, and I've learnt a lot, so this comes to you from a Juniper one year older and hopefully one year wiser than the one who began uploading **The Dictionary – Blading Explained**._

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><p><strong>Chapter 18 – Understanding<strong>

_In which Kyouya does something really rather awesome_

Thursday morning dawned bright and hot, and it wasn't long before the usual early-morning sounds of the Granger dojo began to float out onto the still air. Grampa Granger was in the garden, training, and every now and then absently smashing one of the empty flowerpots that littered the side of the path.

Tyson, only just awake from a dream in which Dragoon had been learning to drive and had tied him to the roof-bars of a Jeep, was making breakfast in his usual state of early-morning semi-consciousness. Daichi trailed into the kitchen behind him, still wearing his pyjamas and yawning periodically. He hopped up to sit on the table and watched Tyson wandering around, looking for the milk.

It had been a rather strange summer for the red-haired blader. As a rule, Daichi didn't make friends very easily, mostly due to his own temperament. In fact, he'd only just got used to the idea that the houses of Max, Ray, Hilary and Kenny were just as open as Tyson's was (Kai was a special exception), and that he could wander in and out of each at will. So this influx of visitors had set him on edge at first. He didn't know what to make of them, he hadn't been quite happy with Gingka staying in the same house as he and Tyson, and once the differences in their blades had started appearing he had just become more and more confused.

But then he had met Yuu; Yuu, who could make pillars of light appear out of nowhere and could create holes seven feet deep in the earth with no effort at all.

To say that Daichi was impressed was an understatement. After the battle between Tyson and Kyouya, he had wandered over to talk to the blonde-haired blader, wondering if at least he might pick up a couple of tricks. Anyway, Yuu at least looked like he was the same age as Daichi, and if there was one thing that Daichi missed being around the other G-Revolutions, it was people who were in his own age group.

By the time he had reached Yuu, the other blader had been talking to Kenta, muttering something about L-Drago and Dragoon looking very similar, and both of them looked almost scared. It had made Daichi stop and think for a second. Both Yuu and Kenta had been forced to leave their home city, and though they were with their friends, they were in separate houses here. _How horrible_, Daichi had thought. _I know what it's like to have no home. I know what it's like to be lonely._

So he'd gone to introduce himself, and ask questions about their beys, showing off his own at the same time. It had been the perfect distraction. Since then, the three had become firm friends, often disappearing to each other's houses or to the parks to battle, talk and laugh privately at the older bladers who did such silly things because they thought they were so grown up.

Yuu had a sort of supernatural ability to beg extra ice-cream out of the vendors in the parks just by opening his eyes really wide and smiling sweetly, which gave him a lot of extra credit in Daichi's eyes. And Kenta was always ready to battle, no matter when or where they were. Between the three of them, they made a pretty awesome team, and Daichi couldn't wait for the chance to visit them in their home city and see all the places they had been telling him about.

Just then, Gingka wandered in, yawning, and dropped into one of the kitchen chairs. "What's for breakfast?" he asked.

"Huh?" Tyson asked, turning round and absently putting the jam-covered knife into the milk bottle. "Whatever you want."

Gingka grinned and helped himself to toast. "What are we doing today?" he asked next.

For a moment, Tyson blinked sleepily at him, and then the question registered. "Oh. Um... I dunno. The guys will probably come round here early, though – we've got lots to talk about still from yesterday."

"Yeah, we sort of got distracted by the battles, didn't we?" Gingka laughed. "They were amazing. I've never seen a battle like that one between you and Kai. It was like... like some great ancient force had come to life and was battling for the rule of the world."

Tyson was awake enough to smile at that. "It almost was, once," he said. "In our last World Championships, Kai and I fought for the Champion's title. What you saw in the park yesterday was nothing compared to that battle."

Gingka sighed happily. "I can't wait to have battles like that," he said. "It must be amazing."

Tyson sat down opposite him with a bowl of cereal in front of him. "It is," he said around a mouthful, "But it can be dangerous. Kai and I destroyed an entire stadium with that match, even one especially constructed to contain our power. You remember seeing ripples in the air when we fought last night? Those were there in the other battle too, but much bigger. Lots of the audience went deaf for a while afterwards because the noise was so loud."

Swallowing a mouthful of toast, Gingka glanced out of the window to where Grampa Granger was bringing his early-morning workout to a halt and subsequently didn't notice when Daichi stole half of his slice of toast. "Your connection with Dragoon is so strong. I just... just couldn't control him at the end. I'm really sorry for hurting him when I forgot he was left-spinning."

"That's alright," Tyson reassured him. "Dragoon's pretty forgiving. You fought really well with him, considering that you've only been using him for a week or so."

Just then, the doorbell rang. Daichi sprang to answer it, in case it was Kenta or Yuu, but Grampa got there first.

"Howdy, Kyouya my man! Morning Kenny!"

"Good morning," the occupants of the kitchen heard Kenny reply. "Where's Tyson?"

"Kitchen, where d'ya think?" There was far too much amusement in Grampa's voice for Tyson's liking.

Moments later, Kenny appeared at the door of the kitchen, carrying his laptop as always, Kyouya trailing behind him. "Hi, guys!"

Tyson waved the knife, too busy chewing through a mouthful of toast to return the greeting verbally. Gingka was the one who finally said "Heya, Kenny. You're early."

"I just figured that after yesterday everyone would get here really early and I wanted to run a spec program on Dragoon before they're all here causing chaos." Kenny explained, placing his laptop down on the worktop. "Madoka sent me the file for L-Drago and I wanted to compare them."

"Sure," Tyson yawned, waving the explanation aside. "You do that, Chief."

That seemed to be all the invitation Kenny needed, because he picked up Tyson's blade from the table and settled down into his usual seat to analyse it. Kyouya watched him for a moment, but was quickly distracted by Daichi, who was full of questions about Leone. Kyouya answered them as well as he could, surprised at how much the young boy already knew.

"What did you say your blade was, Daichi?" he asked when the little red-head had run out of questions.

"Strata Dragoon," Daichi said proudly. "Tyson still doesn't believe that mine's a _proper_ Dragoon – but then again, I don't believe that _his_ is a proper one. I mean, his doesn't even have wings!"

"Do Dragoons have to have wings then?" Kyouya was puzzled, but his inherent curiosity drove him to find more answers.

"Well... no," Daichi admitted. "I dunno what they're _meant_ to look like, 'cause I've only seen two."

Kyouya was about to ask another question when the doorbell rang again. This time, it was Tyson who went to answer it, as Grampa had moved around to the back of the house.

"Ray! Good to see you!"

"You saw me yesterday, Tyson." Ray sighed, moving slightly to the side so that Kenta could squeeze past. "Max had to stay at the shop today – they're taking a big delivery of parts so he and Benkei stayed to help unload them."

This was not an unusual occurrence. In fact, it was more than common for meetings that had begun at the Granger dojo to migrate to the Tate shop to assist with lifting the big boxes of attack rings, clips, weight discs, engine gears, bases and complete blades out of the delivery van. It was great fun, mostly because Mr Tate would then let them hunt through all the parts and decide how to display them. It was the perfect opportunity to design and build brand new and impossible blades that would never work in the dish but looked absolutely amazing, and Tyson loved it.

"Kenta!" Ray and Tyson heard Daichi yell from in the kitchen, followed by the unmistakable sound of someone getting hugged violently and suddenly. "Come on, I've got loads of stuff to show you, let's go, let's go! Yuu's gonna be here soon, let's surprise him!"

And the back door slammed open, then shut, as Daichi led Kenta out into the back garden.

Shaking his head in amusement at the antics of the younger bladers, Tyson wandered back to the kitchen, Ray in tow, only to discover that in his absence Kyouya and Kenny had been joined by two more people. Deciding to not bother asking how they had got in (after all, it _was_ Kai and Tsubasa) Tyson just put on another round of toast and filled the kettle up again.

"You nearly finished with Dragoon, Chief?" he asked, just as the laptop beeped and Kenny scooped up the whitish blade.

"Yep," he said. "Now I just need to link my research to the central computer and to Madoka's information and we'll be able to see exactly what it is about L-Drago and Dragoon that makes them so powerful."

"Gotcha," Tyson nodded. "Make sure you tell me when you find out, though, won't you?"

Gingka was chewing a mouthful of toast thoughtfully. Finally, he swallowed and said "Do you have any data on the battle Kai and Ryuga had back in the park a couple of weeks ago?"

Kenny blinked at him. "Um... yeah, a little," he said. "Why?"

"I think I see what you're getting at," Tsubasa interrupted. "What would happen if you compared the data from Kai and Tyson's battle to that from Kai and Ryuga's battle. Surely that would tell you something about the similarities and differences between the blades."

Kenny frowned slightly. "Well, that might happen," he said slowly. "But with something like that, and especially as it was Kai and Tyson who were battling, it's the temperament of the blader that affects the blading style more than the blade itself."

Tsubasa nodded. "I know what you mean," he said. "It's the same way with our blades – my blade is probably most similar to Kyouya's, but my fighting style is nothing like his. Or Yuu's, come to think of it, as Eagle and Libra both have good stamina. And if Kyouya was fighting Benkei, who also has an attack-type, it would be different to if he was fighting Gingka."

"Oh, I get it," Ray said, but he didn't get a chance to finish because just then there was yet another ring on the doorbell. Tyson hadn't even managed to get to his feet before a double yell of "HI YUU!" from outside told the occupants of the kitchen that Hilary, Madoka and Yuu himself had arrived.

"Morning, boys!" Hilary called as she sailed into the kitchen with a happy smile on her face. "Goodness me, what are you all doing inside on a beautiful day like today? Come on, out! Out!"

Which was how all of the G-Revolutions and their visitors ended up sitting outside under the trees next to the gigantic stadium that Yuu had made on his first day (Grampa still hadn't filled it in – Tyson thought he was planning another koi pond), watching Daichi and Yuu race their blades around the dojo.

"It's weird thinking that we've been here so long already," Gingka said. "What is it, nearly a month now? Where'd all the time go?"

"We did lots of talking," Ray suggested.

"And battling," Kenta pointed out. "Loads of battling."

"Yeah, that's been fun," Gingka laughed. "We all like doing the same things."

Kenta laughed too. "You're right, Gingka. I never thought that we'd all be so similar!"

"We're not _that_ similar," Kyouya protested, but Gingka overruled him.

"No, we are," he said. "Kenta and Yuu and Daichi have all matched up really easily, Madoka and Kenny both love doing the computer stuff rather than blading, Tsubasa and Ray... well, I guess they're just good at being mysterious."

It was Tyson's turn to laugh this time. "Ray's not mysterious!" he exclaimed. "If anyone, it should be Kai."

"But remember what you said to me that day you gave me Dragoon?" Gingka asked. "You said that Kai never does anything by halves and normally does them by doubles." He couldn't help grinning at the ferocious glare that Kai was sending Tyson, who winced. "So Kai's more like Kyouya. And especially after seeing what the battles between you and Kai are like... Kyouya and I – we'll battle like that, as soon as the stadium back home is fixed."

"You have the same sort of relationship," Ray confirmed. "You'd rather fight each other than anyone else in the world, and you'll only count yourself successful once you've beaten the other." Kyouya made some sort of non-committal noise in answer, and Gingka nodded.

"It's been amazing to see what can happen when two bladers who consider each other to be such rivals battle," he said. "I can't wait to battle Kyouya like that. It'll be even more amazing than just watching it."

Ray was the only one who saw the tiny smile that Kai and Kyouya exchanged. Of anything, it was recognition of a kindred spirit, one that burned even more brightly to know that such a spirit, such a desire to win, was recognised and equally respected by their rival.

.

When Grampa came out near eleven with a tray of drinks, he found most of the bladers still under the tree, talking softly in pairs or threes. The exceptions were Tyson, who was dozing in the warmth, and Kai, who was lying on his back with a blade of grass in his mouth, watching the clouds and humming a strange tune under his breath.

"You stayin' out here, little dudes?" Grampa asked. "I'm off out – if you want lunch you know where to find it. Later!"

And with that he was gone. No-one seemed to want to move much – for one thing, it was getting too hot. About five minutes later, though, Kyouya suddenly sat up from where he'd been quietly discussing Ray's former life in the mountains with Tsubasa and Ray himself. "Who wants to battle?" he asked. "I want to see what else Leone can do now." He had his eyes fixed on Gingka, both challenging and hopeful. But Gingka shook his head.

"There's nothing that can replace Pegasus," he said sadly. "I'd love to battle you, Kyouya, especially after all the stuff that Tyson has told us, but I... I can't. Not without my Pegasus."

If Kyouya was disappointed, he hid it well. "Anyone else, then?"

"Not me," Tsubasa said lazily, stretching out beneath the tree. "I'm quite comfortable here."

"I'll battle you, Kyouya!" Kenta exclaimed. "I haven't fought against you for _ages!_"

Kyouya looked rather surprised. "I'm not going to go easy on you," he warned. "It's not my style."

"Don't you dare even think about going easy on me, Kyouya." Kenta retorted shrilly. "I want to fight you fair and square!"

With a helpless shrug, Kyouya agreed. "Your funeral, kid," he said, getting to his feet and fishing Leone out of his pocket. "Let's go."

Most of the bladers under the tree sat up, wanting to have a good view of the battle, though Tyson remained fast asleep. "The only thing that'll wake him up now is a bucket of cold water," Ray muttered to Tsubasa, who laughed.

"Three, two, one, _let it rip!"_ Kenta and Kyouya shouted, interrupting, and with a flash of yellow-green light the two blades were racing towards the centre of the dish Yuu had created. Both reached it at the same moment, and dust billowed up, temporarily hiding the two blades.

"Yay!" Yuu shouted. "Go Kenchi!"

Kenta's eyes glinted and he swung his blade away from the direct contact, choosing to escape to the sides of the dish instead. With a growl, Kyouya followed him, pushing his heavier blade into a sprint to catch up with the lighter Sagittario, which merely danced out of reach. Circling back round, Kenta recaptured the centre and began to dodge Kyouya's running attacks as though his centaur was leaping over the charging lion.

"I'm impressed," Tsubasa said to Ray. "I thought that someone as powerful as Kyouya would just walk all over Kenta, but he's putting up a real fight."

"Kenta's much more dangerous than he looks," Ray answered wisely. "And that just makes him even more dangerous."

Tsubasa laughed again. "I should have known – he challenged me once," he said. "He was the one who gave me the most difficulty, not that I realised at the start. I look forward to challenging him again."

Back in the dish, however, it seemed as though Kenta was beginning to struggle. Kyouya had abandoned his earlier attempts to rush him and was instead gradually circling closer and closer, reducing the area that Sagittario had to move in. All of a sudden, he attacked at full power, finding purchase on Sagittario's edge and pushing the yellow bey out of the centre.

"This looks bad," Kenny murmured to Madoka. "Kenta's blade can't stand up to many more attacks at that strength, and any attack he makes will just bounce off of Kyouya's defence!"

"Kenta'll think of something," Madoka assured him. "Come on, Kenta, keep it up!"

But Sagittario couldn't get away from the powerful Leone, and his revolution speed was dropping fast as the two blades continued to saw away at each other.

"Give up, Kenta!" Kyouya shouted over the metallic grinding. "You can't hope to beat my power!"

But Kenta stood his ground. "No, I won't lose! I can't lose! Come on, Sagittario, push him back!"

Kyouya snarled, and his pale eyes flashed brilliantly. "I will not be defeated! Go Leone! _Lion Gale Force Wall!_"

"That was stupid, Kyouya!" Kenta yelled back, suddenly animated. "Yuu showed me how to break that wall. Go Sagittario! Flame Claw!"

The yellow bey shot towards the heart of the storm at the place where the Gale Force Wall's weakest spot was. Suddenly Madoka, who was tracking Kyouya's blade on her computer, gave a small shriek.

"Pull back, Kenta! Don't attack him!"

"What?" Kenta's blade kept on in a straight line.

"_Kenta,_ _that's not the Gale Force Wall!"_

SLAAAAMMM!

Sagittario rocketed out of the stadium and smashed into the wall several yards away. Kenta gasped in horror. Gingka's mouth fell open in utter shock as he looked at the seven twisting tornadoes in the centre of the dish, then at Kenta's bey, then at Kyouya, who was grinning widely.

"But... but that's King Lion Tearing Blast..."

"So?"

"You said Gale Force Wall," Gingka said weakly. Kyouya raised an eyebrow.

"Did you _really_ think I'd tell you what I was going to do before I did it?"

The others stared in astonishment. Then Yuu let out a whoop of joy. "Go Kyouya!" he cheered. "That's the way to do it!"

"But..." Kenta looked crestfallen. "But that's not fair!"

Kai sat up slowly, looked openly fascinated, which was fascinating in itself. "How did you do that?" he asked, violet eyes suddenly glinting. "That's incredible."

Kyouya tried to look nonchalant, but the little smirk at the corner of his mouth gave him away. "I spent last night practising it. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of saying one thing and meaning another."

Kai's eyes flicked sideways to where Tyson was still sprawled out under the tree, dead to the world. "Show me."


	19. Obedience

_Ugh. This chapter did **not** want to get written. Thank you for your patience, your alerts and your reviews - hopefully the next chapter shouldn't take so long!_

_Another milestone chapter – this time for 50,000 words._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 19 - Obedience<strong>

_In which Garland has visitors_

Garland had visitors.

This was quite a normal occurrence, and they had a protocol for it by now. No running around, no beybattles, no rearranging reality (admittedly, that one was mostly aimed at Zeus, who got bored easily) or breaking the laws of physics. Brooklyn was asked to please not bring any live animals into the house, even if they were really pretty, and dead ones had to stay at the bottom of the garden. Mystel was to keep both feet on the ground at all times. Garland was not to get visibly frustrated or shout at either of them if they got these instructions wrong, but they could expect retribution later in the form of a pair of confiscated beyblades, and no dessert at dinnertime. These were amazingly effective threats, so much so that Mystel would sometimes go for hours after the visitors left without climbing on or swinging from anything, even the rope swing in the back garden.

Today was no different. Garland had looked at the two of them over his morning cup of coffee at the breakfast table and had politely informed them that they had to be on their "best behaviour", because he had a couple of very important visitors coming that afternoon.

Ryuga, unused to the system, was puzzled by all this fuss. Surely if Garland was the only one with visitors, the others could do what they liked in the rest of the house? But it seemed that "visitors" had a higher priority than anyone in the household, and both Brooklyn and Mystel had given him horrified looks when he had suggested a three-way battle out in the garden.

"But what if Garland's visitors arrive?" Mystel had asked, shock making his eyes even larger than usual.

This had both confused and annoyed Ryuga, who had stomped off to his room with L-Drago, who was unhelpfully laughing at him. The triplicate dragon had been acting rather strangely since Ryuga had won him back from Brooklyn, and Ryuga was almost certain that it was not a good thing. However, he was _completely_ certain that it was all Brooklyn's fault.

But being on his own in his room hadn't been much fun, which was why Ryuga was now sitting at the top of the stairs that led into the main entrance hall, out of sight of anyone coming in through the doors but with a perfect view of _them._ L-Drago curled happily through his mind, a sort of great purple shadow that occasionally offered snide comments on the behaviour of a rather flustered Garland who was rushing about below trying to get everything ready. Ryuga was still annoyed with the person who had caused Brooklyn and Mystel to all but abandon him, and so he didn't bother to tell his unruly constellation to be quiet and stop bad-mouthing his host.

The knock on the door came at precisely half past one. Garland, now calm and in one of his smart, Italian-cut business suits, answered it with a smile to allow three young men into the hallway. From his vantage point at the top of the stairs, Ryuga could see that the tallest of them had strange, deep purple hair that spiked and smoothed around his head like an odd sort of helmet.

The second tallest one had straight, shoulder-length, blonde hair, and was wearing a suit very similar to Garland's, except that it was red. His expression spoke of a centuries-old bloodline, condescension towards the world in general, and _lots_ of money.

The last one was the one who caught Ryuga's eye, though. Standing just behind the purple-haired guest, his suit was nowhere near as expensive as those of the other two. It was his hair that marked him out to Ryuga. A mass of deep red spikes held up and back with a blue head-band gave the impression that his head was on fire.

If Ryuga hadn't seen the young man's face clearly, he would have mistaken him for Gingka.

L-Drago purred in his head, providing information on the three that human eyes couldn't make out. All three were bladers, it seemed, and all of them had phenomenally strong constellations – well, one had a constellation. The other two had bit-beasts like Garland's. How interesting.

_Salamanders and griffons and centaurs all,_ L-Drago sang. _They are nothing to me._

"It's a pleasure to meet you at last," Garland was saying to the young man in the red suit. "It's always good to meet bladers from other countries."

"Same here," the other replied, a hint of an Italian lilt to his accent. "Am I right in thinking that your brothers and sisters, like you, have chosen fields of sport to excel in?"

"Yes," Garland said, still using his very-polite voice that Ryuga was finding more than a little strange after a month and a half of living with him. "Racing cars, golf and tennis, amongst other things. I understand that you took the Junior title in the fencing championships this year?"

There was a hint of something strange in the other young man's eyes. "Amongst other things."

Ryuga saw the smirk at the corner of the unsmiling mouth, and immediately decided that he did not like this young man.

_He can choose,_ L-Drago whispered in his ear. _He can choose which way his blade goes._

"Oh can he now," Ryuga muttered, scowling. "We'll see about that."

"Why don't you come into the parlour, Julian?" Garland asked, stretching out his arm to indicate the closest door. "Robert, Johnny, may I offer you something to drink?"

In the clatter of shoes crossing the tiled entrance hall, Ryuga missed the responses, but he couldn't have cared less about the visitors. Or at least, about two of them. The other one, though...

Johnny. That was the one who looked like Gingka. Ryuga wanted to know where he came from, wanted to know just what it was about that man that was making the skin on his back crawl.

_Pay attention!_ L-Drago snapped. _He's not important. Focus on that Julian. He's the dangerous one._

Ryuga rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around his updrawn knees on the top step. "Are they related? Gingka and that man?"

L-Drago snarled and refused to reply, coiling up in a bundle of sulkiness in the centre of Ryuga's mind. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.

Well, if that was how it was going to be, then Ryuga was going to do his own intelligence gathering. He needed to know more before he could judge anything, but if L-Drago's behaviour was anything to go by, there were three very powerful beasts in the room below him – and L-Drago still hungered for that power.

So he stood up, moving quietly but deliberately down the stairs. At least if he made it _look_ like he wasn't doing anything sneaky he might get away with it if he was caught. Not that he was _going_ to get caught, of course. The stairs, made of cold stone and therefore delightfully creak-free, took him down to right opposite the door that the visitors had disappeared behind.

"It's imperative that we get this finalised as soon as possible," a voice was saying from behind the door. "I need to know how much I will have to put into this as a financial backer before the end of the year."

"But of course, Julian." That was Garland's voice. "The preparations are almost complete. The only reason why I thought it would be important to meet in person is so that we could discuss the exact terms."

"I see," said another new voice. "What sort of terms are you talking about here?"

Garland cleared his throat. "I was wondering about the possibilities of using advertising..."

Great. He'd gone to all of this bother and now all they were talking about was some sort of business deal. How unutterably dull.

L-Drago was moving again, straining to get away and head for the three – well, four really – beasts inside the room, and Ryuga forced him back yet again. What was wrong with him today? Yes, L-Drago was a fiercely independent creature, and it took a lot of work for him to submit originally, but surely he shouldn't still be having problems?

"The WBBA sent me a letter to say that they are very grateful that we have agreed to help out with running this new World Championship," said yet another new voice, lower than the others. "With the contacts that Johnny, Julian and I have in Europe, and with your help from here in Japan, I'm sure that it shouldn't be hard to co-ordinate it all."

"I have business partners in the Americas and in Africa," said the voice that Ryuga recognised as Julian's. "If Robert and Johnny are willing to organise the European tournaments then it will at least mean that there can be no accusations of me manipulating the stadiums to give myself an advantage. You know what those tabloid papers are like."

"True," said the lower voice, which Ryuga had deduced was Robert's. "I have already spoken with Hiwatari about the possibility of him organising the Russian arena, but he wasn't interested in having a personal input. The company will back it, but not him personally."

"That is good," Garland said. "I think that's everywhere sorted, then."

"Agreed," Julian's voice came through the door clear and strident. "Then if we are all content, I would like to examine the exact phrasing of those conditions you mentioned, Garland."

"Of course," Garland said. "It's in the study, if you will follow me?"

"I'm fine here," said the third voice, which by process of elimination Ryuga decided must be Johnny. "I hate small-print."

"I trust that you and Julian will be able to come to a satisfactory conclusion between you," said Robert, his voice rich and rolling. "Besides, if I remember correctly your study can be a little cramped with more than two people in it."

Ryuga heard the sounds of Garland being flustered and almost laughed. But only a second later he got the shock of his life, because footsteps were coming across the floor towards the door. Before Ryuga could do anything, before he could even move an inch, the door opened very suddenly and revealed Garland standing right behind it.

Ryuga would have had enough time to look innocent if it hadn't been for L-Drago suddenly deciding to act up again. The dragon-beast, perhaps sensing the undercurrent of anger that Ryuga was still feeling towards his host, rippled through Ryuga's skin and forced a snarl out from behind sharpening fangs. Garland took a step back, his eyes wide with shock, as Ryuga coughed from the sudden ferocity of the snarl. Wisps of purple smoke trickled from the corners of his mouth. Oh, this was bad.

"J-just what were you doing standing there, Ryuga?" Garland asked, clearly trying very hard not to get angry as his shock wore off. "Were you trying to eavesdrop?"

Preoccupied with the sick, swooping sensation in his stomach that was suggesting very clearly that he was only a couple of moments away from losing himself again – and after all the hard work he'd done to control it! - Ryuga couldn't answer. That was enough for Garland.

"Well, if you're so interested in listening to conversations, you can come in and make them yourself," the silver-haired blader snapped, stress obviously beginning to make cracks in his façade of the perfect host. "You can talk to Robert and Johnny whilst Julian and I finalise the conditions on the contract."

And he swept past, followed by the red-coated Julian, who gave Ryuga a cold look. L-Drago snarled again, though this time Ryuga managed to keep it soundless. Heart still hammering from the sudden strain of fighting a bored and unruly dragon, Ryuga managed to straighten his spine and at least walk into the room with all the pride he could muster.

As he took a seat on the sofa opposite the two remaining people in the room, L-Drago decided to be nice again, providing a sudden stream of information. _Lizard-salamander-Scottish-Johnny-armour-red-fire-fierce-Kai-lost-won_ came through in a burst of sound that only Ryuga could hear, and before he could unscramble it _Robert-griffon-purple-great-power-stronger-strongest-armour-leader-German-castle-huge-stone-cold-fierce_ came hard on its heels.

Reeling from this vast, almost nonsensical rush of information, Ryuga focused on the two people sitting opposite him. It felt like he was about to be interviewed for some sort of job, with the two much bigger men on the other sofa watching him like hawks for his first mistake.

"So you're Ryuga, hmm?" the purple-haired – _Robert,_ L-Drago provided – asked him, finally breaking the silence. "I've seen footage of your battles. You're... quite the blader."

Ryuga was good enough at reading people's faces that he knew this was not a compliment, and so he didn't say anything, merely glaring at the two on the opposite sofa. Of all the stupid things to happen, he just _had_ to go and get caught, didn't he? Would his bad luck never end?

"Salamalyon tells me that you've got a bit-beast," the one called Johnny said, lounging back on the sofa and crossing his feet at the ankles as he stretched his legs out. "He says it's a dragon."

_Is that all?_ L-Drago asked, and there was something so horrible in his whispering voice that Ryuga shuddered. The beast sounded as if he was one insult from ripping his way through Ryuga's body and attacking the red-head.

_L-Drago, be quiet,_ he snapped mentally, or at least he thought he did.

"L-Dragon?" Robert asked, and Ryuga's head shot up in alarm. "Is that his name?"

"Not L-Dragon," Ryuga muttered. "His name is L-Drago."

"Dragon, Drago, what's the difference?" Johnny asked, his eyes glinting. "Why are you telling him to be quiet?"

Anger flared in Ryuga's stomach. "That's none of your business."

Robert straightened up. "We're bladers too," he said clearly. "We have bit-beasts of our own, and it has been many, many years since I have had to tell Griffolyon to be quiet."

"Are you telling me that I don't know how to control my own constellation?" Ryuga snarled, and felt L-Drago's rage bubble up to mix with his own, like carbon fusing into iron to make a blade of steel and unparalleled strength. How _dare _they?

"That's exactly what we're saying," Robert said. "Garland said that you even allowed it to take over from you at one point."

Were these Europeans just going to sit there and insult him? "I have no idea what you're talking about." Yes, he was lying through his pointed teeth, but who cared?

"Then what was with that... that _thing_ at the end of Battle Bladers?" Johnny asked, eyes grim.

Ryuga scowled. He hated being reminded of that, for one thing, and for another it seemed that the two people sitting opposite him had a much greater idea of who he was than he did of them. "That wasn't my..."

"I don't care whose fault it was," Johnny interrupted. "Did you have control of your bit-beast, or not?"

Ryuga felt every muscle in his body stiffen in pure rage. "What does it matter to you?" he spat, beginning to get to his feet.

But Johnny just looked him straight in the face and said softly, "Everything."

Ryuga stared at him, not knowing what to say. So far in this conversation – if it could be called that – he had been wrong-footed at every turn.

Robert was the one who broke the silence, reaching into the pocket of his expensive suit and pulling out a blade. The edges of it glittered, and Ryuga knew from L-Drago's happy trill that this contained a very powerful beast indeed, maybe even as strong as L-Drago himself.

"My family has owned this beast for centuries," Robert said clearly, tilting the blade so that Ryuga could see the large griffon circling contentedly in the centre. "He was my servant, my plaything, and I expected absolute obedience from him. After all, the rest of the servants did exactly the same." He leant back, pushing his blade back into the deep pocket of his suit, and took a deep breath. "Disobedience meant punishment – maybe restrictions in what he could do, maybe just by not letting him out for days at a time. It didn't matter, as long as he was under control."

Ryuga couldn't see where this was going. "Are you saying that I should just not let L-Drago out to keep him controlled? Because let me tell you something – that's _not going to work_."

"I know," Johnny said blandly. "It doesn't take too long before the beasts decide that they've had enough of being controlled, and they want to be the ones to control _you."_

A shudder ran up and down Ryuga's spine. Did they... could they know? Had it been so obvious on his face?

"Our bit-beasts decided they didn't want to be treated as tools any more," Robert said firmly, his hand still deep in his pocket,wrapped safely around his precious bey. "Our friend Enrique had the worst of it, as his bit-beast actually turned on him and attacked him, but all of us lost control. If it hadn't been for the hard work and generous nature of Tyson and his friends, I doubt that any of us would be here."

"Ugh," Ryuga growled, irritation making him break his silence. "What kind of kid _is_ this Tyson guy? It's like... it's like no-one can possibly say anything bad about him."

Johnny's eyes twinkled in amusement. "Is that really such a bad thing, Ryuga?"

Ryuga looked away. "I don't need _more_ people reminding me of that idiot Gingka." But he didn't quite mean it, and he knew it even before he said it.

"Tyson's a good kid," Robert said. "He's got the right idea about blading – it's not always about winning."

"And bit-beasts aren't tools – they're friends. Tyson taught us that, many years ago." Johnny had got to his feet and was pacing across the carpet restlessly. "And once you realise that it's mutual, the battles aren't so hard. You're not battling your own supporter as well."

"L-Drago's much stronger than you know," Robert explained, and his voice was curiously soft. "But because you spend all your time fighting him, rather than working in sync with him, you can't even touch most of that power."

To Ryuga's complete surprise, he felt L-Drago prick his ears up, head rising slowly inside the little space he occupied in Ryuga's mind to stare through the blader's eyes at Robert. _He is interesting,_ the dragon purred. _He knows much. But I do not trust him._

"Why are you even talking to me?"

Apparently his question took Robert by surprise. "What do you mean, Ryuga?"

"I've just walked in here, completely out of the blue and you're talking to me as if you've known me all my life. You don't know me at all – you've never even met me before."

Johnny's smile was strange. "But it feels like we know you. We've heard a lot about you, for one thing, from Garland and from Tyson himself. We know that you're in a very similar situation to the way we used to be. Tyson showed us how to properly connect with our beasts – it's only fair if we do the same for you. After all, I don't think anyone wants a repeat of two months ago."

Ryuga shuddered. No, he certainly didn't. But he still couldn't understand how these two strangers could be so... so _open_ with their knowledge! If he had knowledge like that, he would only offer it to someone he trusted completely.

"Why do you care so much?" he asked, almost unaware that the blistering words were coming out of his mouth.

It was Robert who answered. "Because you are a blader, a true blader, and so are we. If you don't know what that means, then clearly you weren't listening to Gingka when he was yelling it at you from the top of the Battle Bladers Tower."

"I was a little bit preoccupied," Ryuga muttered, but he had to admit that Robert, sitting there so calmly with his professional suit and his powerful griffon just waiting out of sight to prove his strength, had a very good point. Gingka had certainly been yelling at him – and Ryuga could remember every word of it.

But there was no more time for conversation, for at that moment the door clicked open and Garland and Julian strode in, both looking as stern as always.

"Well, we should be going," Robert said, getting to his feet and holding out his hand to Ryuga, who looked at it in complete confusion. After everything that the two men had just said, he was expected to react normally? Robert appeared to take it in his stride, though, and somehow managed to make it look as if he had merely been reaching up to brush something invisible from his shoulder. "It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ryuga."

Garland gave Ryuga a sharp look, but the other teen was too occupied trying to work out exactly what was going on to notice, so Garland quickly changed the focus of his attention. "Julian, I can expect your response soon?"

"As soon as I can return to Italy," Julian answered, his head held high. "It has been good to do business with you."

"Likewise." Ryuga noticed that Garland's voice had returned to the incredibly polite tone it had boasted earlier. "I am sure that the WBBA will be more than delighted to hear of our joint work and contributions."

"Everything in order, then?" Johnny asked casually, turning from where he had been staring out of the window and coming across to the group by the door. "Good. The sooner we get back to the hotel, the sooner we can get all the information sent off and then get on with having a holiday."

Julian gave him a scathing look. _"You_ may have a holiday," he informed Johnny icily, "But some of us have more important things to do. I must practice for the upcoming championships."

L-Drago hissed in Ryuga's head, and for once Ryuga agreed with him. Something about Julian set his teeth on edge, and the knowledge that Julian was so casually invading his private left-spinning sphere just made it worse. It wasn't even as if he had a blade that only went left – he could _choose_ which way it went, completely negating all the mystique that Ryuga had built up as the master of a left-rotating bey.

Garland led them out into the hall, and Ryuga found himself following behind Johnny. It was just as well, because as Garland began a rather elaborate sequence of farewells, Johnny leaned in close to his ear.

"Talk to Brooklyn," Johnny suggested quietly. "And possibly even Kai. If you want to make sure that your dragon never takes over your body or your battles again, those are the guys to help you."

At that, Ryuga finally snapped "What makes you think _I_ need help?"

To his utter shock, Johnny just gave him a serene smile. "That's up to you to decide," he said. "But considering that you've been forcing your constellation down ever since you walked into the room, and probably for a long time before, he's not completely under your control."

"How did you know...?" Ryuga began before he could stop himself, and again Johnny gave him that irritating smile.

"You're not the only one who has a bit-beast who talks to him, Ryuga," he said, and followed Julian and Robert down the long drive to the road.

_I don't like him,_ L-Drago said grumpily. _I don't like any of them, and I especially don't like that one in the red._

_Me neither,_ Ryuga thought, and then paused. Maybe – just maybe – those visitors had a point. What if he and L-Drago could once again want exactly the same things; feel the same desire to win above all else, but without the terrible hunger and greed that that swallowed Ryuga up barely two months ago? What if they could be a... well, not a _team_ because Gingka had _teams,_ not Ryuga... maybe a partnership? Him, working _with_ L-Drago, not fighting him for control every step of the way.

If what he had been told ever since he first heard of L-Drago was true, and he was meant to bear the triplicate dragon, then that meant he was also the only one who would ever be able to work and fight side-by side with L-Drago. Thousands had been able to _control_ the Dragon, at least for a while, but none had ever _become_ the Dragon.

And if he did? Well, who then would dare to stand against the Dragon Emperor and the constellation that was his power, his protector – and friend?


	20. Launching New Ideas

**Chapter 20 – Launching New Ideas**

_In which everyone's attacks get a bit muddled up._

Hilary was almost skipping as she led Madoka and Yuu to the dojo that morning. There was actually quite a good reason for this, and it was clasped in her right hand. The boys had _finally_ (after only three lectures from Grampa Granger on Being Nice To Girls) agreed to teach her how to blade properly. It was going to be great! Okay, she knew she'd never be able to match up to the sheer power of the bit-beasts that the boys commanded, but maybe she could find some younger bladers in the parks who she could battle with...

"Dranzer, _Flamesabre!"_

"Driger! _Metal Wing Smash!_"

"WHAT?"

Hilary and Madoka exchanged glances and took off at a sprint, heading around the dojo to the garden, where Ray and Kai were standing on opposite sides of Yuu's bey-dish, Ray laughing at the completely nonplussed expressions on everyone else's faces.

"You can't even _use_ that attack!" Tyson was yelling, arms wide. "I mean, I know you weren't _trying_ to use it but..."

"Yeah!" Tsubasa added, looking as if he was torn between laughter and anger. "It's _mine!"_

"So?" Ray was clearly having the time of his life, laughing as Driger and Dranzer rolled over and over in the sky, feathers and fur flying everywhere. "Who said it had to be one of _my_ attacks that I called?"

Kyouya shook his head in despair. "Because then your opponent might actually think that you were going to use the attack you shouted rather than a completely random one?"

Ray shrugged, still laughing. "But Kai _knows_ that I'm calling random attacks. Anyway, if I'm only allowed to call my own attacks and not do them that takes half the fun out of it!"

"I'm being serious!" Tyson almost squeaked. "You guys are scary enough now that you can both use completely random attacks; stop making me think that you can use other people's attacks too!"

"Then just remember that I can't and you'll be fine..."

"But it _sounds _like you can!"

"_Novae Rog_!" Kai roared over the argument, and Dranzer sprang into the sky, raining feathers of flame down on Driger with the pin-point accuracy of Blazing Gig Tempest.

"See?" Ray grinned, and then his face fell as he realised that Kai's attack was having rather more effect than expected. "What? No! Driger, come on! Don't let him take you down that way! _Thunder Slash_!"

Driger snarled and gathered himself for the attack – it seemed that Ray had reverted to calling the correct attack now that he was in trouble. Hilary sidled over to stand behind Tyson, who was still fuming at Ray's cheekiness.

"Hey, guys," she said, making Tyson jump.

"Oh, hi Hil," he said, not taking his eyes off the battle that was quickly turning very one-sided. "You got here early."

"Yeah, well, you promised you'd teach me how to blade properly!" Nothing could go wrong today, Hilary was sure of it. "I can't wait!"

Tsubasa had overheard. "You may have to," he pointed out. "Ray and Kai still have to finish battling and then Max wants to have a go at it."

Hilary sighed, then perked up a bit. "I've waited three years, what's another couple of minutes?" She wandered over to where Kyouya was standing, his arms folded as he watched the goings-on, and took a position next to him.

Madoka, who had whipped out her laptop the moment that she had seen the battle going on and was now sitting on the veranda, looked up. "Hey, Tsubasa," she called. "You might want to see this."

Tsubasa dropped down beside her, leaning in as Kenny also scooted up so that he could see the screen. "What is it?"

"It's their attacks," she said, pointing to the bars that indicated how powerful each strike was. "It's really clever what they're doing, calling one attack and meaning another one, but there's a problem – look!"

Kenny was the first to realise, and he gasped, immediately turning back to his own laptop and beginning to type away instructions at top speed. It took Tsubasa a few seconds longer, until the moment when Kai shouted "Dranzer, _Aqua Shield_!" and Ray called out the Thunder Slash again at the same moment.

"You following me?" Madoka asked, watching Tsubasa's face for reactions. "It's incredible, isn't it?"

Tsubasa was momentarily speechless. "I thought that something like this might happen because their concentration was divided, but that's incredible! Ray's attacking with nearly three times the amount of power that Kai is!"

"Kai's not holding back either," Kenny said. "He's attacking with almost everything he's got."

Tsubasa blanched. "Then it's really not such a good idea to try and mix up the att-"

He was cut off at that second as Dranzer and Driger both exited the dish at high speeds, whipping past Tsubasa's nose and slamming into the dojo wall. An annoyed yell from Grampa Granger was heard seconds later as the two powerful beyblades ricocheted off the wall, leaving a huge dent, and sprang back to their owners' hands.

"Yeah," said Kenny with a slightly shaking voice. "Mixing up the attacks doesn't always work that well. Maybe it'd be better to stick to the normal attacks for the proper battles, guys."

Ray shrugged and laughed. "We can always use the muddled ones for demonstration battles, just to confuse people."

"My go!" Max sang, jumping forwards. "Come on, Tyson, battle me!"

But before Tyson could answer, Hilary stepped forwards. "No, let me!" she exclaimed, her eyes shining in anticipation. "You guys _promised_ you'd teach me!"

There was a moment of silence in the garden as all of the G-Revolutions exchanged glances. "We did promise," Ray admitted after a long pause.

"Then we're honour-bound to hold to that promise," Kai answered with his usual grim expression.

"Tyson, you know what to do," Ray said with a heavy sigh. "Let's get on with it, shall we?"

The Metal bladers and Hilary looked on in complete confusion as Tyson nodded and disappeared into the dojo. Moments later, there was the unmistakable sound of a World Champion being spotted by Grampa Granger, followed very quickly by the classic rapid-fire chatter of Tyson evading yet another lecture with his usual skill, and then a very loud crash. Ray winced.

"Does anyone feel like explaining just what is going on?" Tsubasa asked, looking over at Kenny, who was staring absently at the dojo's outer wall.

"Oh, just a precautionary measure," Kenny answered vaguely, just as Tyson came back out of the dojo.

There was a long moment of silence, and then an outraged shriek from Hilary. "GUYS! I'm not _that_ bad!"

Tyson's arms were filled to overflowing with various forms of protective head-gear from four hard-hats in various shades of neon to what looked suspiciously like the helmet from the samurai costume Hiro had once owned. "Trust me," Tyson grimaced, dumping his armful down in front of the shocked Metal bladers. "You _will_ need these. Unless you want to wake up tomorrow in hospital with concussion."

"TYSON!" wailed Hilary. "You're so mean!"

Tyson's eyes went rather wide. "I just want to keep their heads safe!" he exclaimed. "I don't know about you, but I haven't forgotten what happened with Hopper yet. If you're determined to learn, we'll teach you, but until we know you can launch straight I for one am keeping this firmly on my head." And with those words he swept off his usual cap to jam the bright yellow hard-hat onto his head. Hilary gave him a ferocious scowl but couldn't argue. After all, she had yet to succeed in launching her brand new blade in a straight line.

Daichi took one look at the helmets on offer and a look of complete terror crossed his face. "There's _no way_ I'm wearing one of those," he informed them. "Come on, Kenchi, Yuu – let's go battle out front." Kenta and Yuu jumped to their feet, apparently relieved that they would no longer have to wear the rather ridiculous head-gear.

"Hilary, if you can come over here whilst everyone else gets their hats on or gets out of the way?" Ray called. "You've got your launcher, right?" Hilary held up the star-tipped launcher with pride, and Kai gave it a horrified look.

"You launch with _that?_" he asked in disgust. "What kind of a blader are you?"

"A girl!" Hilary shot back. "You didn't complain about Ming-Ming's microphone, did you?" She ignored Kai's muttering and turned to Ray. "Can we get started? I've been looking forwards to this for _ages!_"

Ray nodded, tugging self-consciously at the sides of the samurai costume helmet he was wearing. In the hot weather it would soon be quite uncomfortable, but better that than having a blade bouncing off his skull. "Okay, Hilary. Can you please take up a normal launch stance for me? Just – don't launch yet, we need to check your balance."

Max put his head slightly on one side to appraise the way Hilary was standing, and nodded. "She's not bad at all, Ray. She must have been paying attention when we were all training."

Ray laughed. "I'm not surprised, Max. She was the one training us for a year and she was the one who came up with our very first training schedule, if you remember..."

.

It was about an hour later. Hilary had yet to launch in a straight line, and Kai was looking particularly irritated in his blue hard-hat which didn't quite fit properly on his hair. Whilst Hilary certainly had the power to launch the blade and maintain it for quite some time, her accuracy was so seriously lacking that the hats had been essential on more than one occasion. Tsubasa, who was wearing an old motorbike helmet that Tyson had said belonged to his dad, was the only one who felt safe enough to turn his back on the action temporarily as Gingka emerged from the dojo for the first time that morning.

The wielder of Pegasus didn't look very happy at all. His shoulders were stooped and one hand was absently clasping at the box where his blade had once been kept. He dropped down to sit between Kenny and Madoka, not looking at anyone.

"Gingka? You okay?" Kenny asked. Gingka shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said slowly. "I'm just thinking about things. It's a bit complicated."

Kyouya leaned in to talk to him. "The battle that Tyson and Kai had?" he asked without looking at Gingka. "Thought so."

"Sort of," Gingka admitted. "It's more that I miss Pegasus. I know... I know that he'll come back eventually – he _has_ to – but I don't know what I should do to make it happen faster."

"Well, there is _one _thing you could do..." Kyouya reached behind him and grabbed the brilliant green hard-hat that was the only one left, and pressed it onto Gingka's spiky hair with rather suspicious enthusiasm. When Gingka gave him a slightly hurt look, the Lion just grinned. "If you get your head taken off by Hilary before I get to battle you again, I'll never forgive you."

Gingka rolled his eyes and a tiny half-smile crept into the corner of his mouth. Kyouya looked satisfied with that, turning back to watch as Hilary once again took up her launching stance at the side of the dish.

"Hey!" Max yelled suddenly. "I've got an idea!" He tugged something from his belt and handed it over to Hilary, who looked at it in confusion.

"What is it?"

"It's my launcher," Max explained. "It's got a laser-guiding system, so your blade should go right to where the laser-marker points!"

Hilary's eyes lit up. "You're amazing, Max! Thanks!"

"I never would have thought of that," Ray mused, sounding slightly disappointed. "Oh well."

"Go for it, Hilary," Max urged, and again Hilary resumed the launching pose. "No, less weight on your back foot, remember? And left elbow up a bit... straighten that arm... good! Now, squeeze that trigger to start the laser, then launch when you're ready."

"Wait for the wind to die down," Kai cut in suddenly. "Give it a couple more seconds."

The dancing red dot on the bottom of the dish wavered only slightly as Hilary took a deep breath. "Let it rip!"

The blade sprang from Max's launcher straight towards the red dot, striking it with perfect precision. Tyson was about to let out a whoop of joy when the blade suddenly kicked up a flurry of dust and bounced off the hard ground to ricochet across the garden, burying itself almost to the face-bolt in Grampa's flowerbed. Hilary groaned.

"I turn my back for three seconds and look what happens," drawled a voice from the corner of the covered walkway. Everyone except Kai turned to see Tala leaning casually against one of the posts, his arms folded and his eyes fixed on Hilary's half-buried blade. "I thought you had a solemn promise to never let her anywhere near your blades again, boys?"

"Hi, Tala," Ray said, offering a small smile.

"It's not one of our blades," Max said at the same time. "That's her own blade. We kind of have to teach her – we promised."

Tala gave them all a rather scathing look. "Then I suppose I can't say anything," he announced finally with a wave of his hand. "Carry on."

Max turned back to Hilary. "That was so close," he encouraged her. "I really think you're getting the hang of this. Just a bit more practice and I reckon you'll be able to launch as well as anyone!"

"Maybe," Hilary sighed. "But I'm really tired – can we take a break? It's so hot out here."

Max exchanged glances with the other G-Revolutions and then nodded. "We've been going nearly an hour," he pointed out. "A break wouldn't be a bad idea."

"You actually were serious about teaching her," Tala commented, clearly trying not to snigger. "Will wonders never cease?"

"How would you know?" Kai, who was digging Hilary's blade out of the the flowerbed, retorted. He carefully brushed all the dirt off of the glittering metal and handed it back. "You've never seen her blade before."

At that, Tala actually laughed. "I've heard enough about it from all of you; I don't need to see it with my own eyes. Though, if the dents and holes all over the garden mean anything then what I've been told was an understatement."

"So why are you here, Tala?" Ray interrupted, turning to the red-head before an argument could escalate. "You've made a bit of a habit of dropping in at random moments recently."

"I'm here on WBBA business again," the older blader explained. "You've all got your letters by now, I assume?"

"What letters?" Tyson asked, pulling his hard-hat off. "You mean the ones which asked if we want to become part of the WBBA?"

Tala nodded. "That's them. The WBBA wants an answer by the end of the week, so get a move on and decide if you want in or not." He exchanged a long glance with Kai, who gave him a small nod. "Oh, and Kenny? This is for you." He handed Kenny a small package from his pocket, which Kenny ripped open immediately. "It's an update for your laptop. Should allow you to access the WBBA mainframe. Bryan and Ian spent hours on it, so don't you dare break it."

"Wow..." Kenny breathed. "Thanks, Tala! This is _exactly_ what I need." He settled back onto the veranda, Madoka beside him, and began working as fast as he could on installing the upgrade. Soon, the only sound that could be heard from his direction was the click of keys as he entered a number of strings of code that Madoka was reading off to him.

"That's so cool, Tala," Tyson said with a huge grin. "I know that's one thing that Kenny's been wanting for ages."

"Yeah," Max chipped in, giving Tala a smile. "Say thanks to Bryan and Ian, please?" Tala merely jerked his head in acknowledgement, but Max clearly took it as acceptance.

"What is it that you do for the WBBA exactly?" Kyouya asked suddenly, intrigued by this fierce older blader who seemed to command such respect from the G-Revolutions. "You said you had something to do with the Russian team when you came into the shop last week."

Ice-blue eyes opened wider and Tala gave Kyouya an appraising look. "Yes, I remember you," he said. "You're the one with the new combo blade and the lion constellation."

"Leone," Kyouya confirmed. "So are you the Russian team's coach?"

Tala's laugh was horrible. "No," he gritted out. "I have nothing whatsoever to do with them, and I don't want to. I'm just a general agent for the WBBA, doing odd jobs around the place to get the World Championships set up."

"Tala," Tyson suddenly interrupted, leaning in. "Can I ask you something? It's... it's sort of about Wolborg, but sort of not."

"You can ask. I won't necessarily answer. Go on."

Tyson swallowed. "What came first, working for the WBBA or losing Wolborg?"

Tala froze, his expression turning almost alarmed. "What do you mean by that?"

Showing considerable bravery, Tyson ploughed on. "If you hadn't lost Wolborg, would you be working as an agent for the WBBA, or would you be trying to fight as one of their bladers?"

For a long, long moment Tala didn't answer. He seemed to be giving the question some serious thought, and his eyes were dark with memories. "I wouldn't be battling for the WBBA," he said eventually. "I've been fighting all my life, and though I love it, I've got used to... It's time for the younger ones to get a chance to battle. But I wouldn't be working for them either."

Tyson nodded. "I thought you'd say something like that. Anyway, I'm in. If the WBBA is going to be the big thing now, then I definitely want to be on board."

"Me too," Max piped up. "I've already had a letter from my mum saying that she's joining the American branch, and Rick and Michael have definitely said they're going to join in to help with the World Championship."

Tala actually looked quite pleased. "Ray? What about you?"

Ray was looking at the ground, apparently uncomfortable. "I'm not sure," he said quietly. "There's... there's lots of things I need to think about. For one thing, I need to help choose the next bearer of Driger, and I haven't been back to my village in so long... I'm not sure if I want to join just yet."

Tsubasa folded his arms. "Who says that being in the WBBA means you can't go back to your village when you want?" he asked. "They've never made me do anything I don't want to do, and I can always ask for time off if I need it."

"I guess..."

Tala sat down on the veranda and stretched his legs out in front of him. Considering his upbringing and his former style of blading attacks, he looked remarkably comfortable in the heat, tilting his head towards the sun. "The WBBA really isn't that bad," he said, and Tyson laughed.

"That's glowing praise coming from you, Tala."

The only thing that comment got was a fierce scowl. "The BBA was a good set-up. The WBBA has just taken it to its logical conclusion. All they need now is a decent director and they'll be well on their way to being a very powerful force in the world."

"There's still no director?" Gingka asked, looking slightly more animated than before. "But the Worlds are starting soon and if there's no director how are they going to organise everything?"

Tala shook the twin strands of hair that fell in front of his eyes back. "There's many people in the business who are perfectly capable of making decisions. All the funding is already secured through private sponsors, and most of the stadiums are nearly ready. The board of governors are making most of the choices at the moment; the only thing that the director will be needed for is the finalising of the prizes and the format that the matches will take. Even Tsubasa here could run it if he had to."

The G-Revolutions exchanged pleased smiles. A board of governors would mean that megalomaniacs like Boris and Doji would find it far harder to break into the new system, and if majority vote was needed on things it would make things fairer to everyone, hopefully. Of course, it would take much longer to get things sorted, but if the governors were as passionate about blading or at least about getting people into the sport as the current bladers were, then it was worth it.

"It sounds like it's going to be a workable system," Max said. "I'll be glad to be a part of it."

"Good," said Tala, getting to his feet again. "Then if you're all decided – mostly," here he gave a stern look to Ray, "- then I have other places I need to be. Kai, four days. You know where."

With that last cryptic statement, he was gone as quickly as he had arrived. Kyouya watched after him in fascination.

"What a strange blader," he said to no-one in particular. "They don't make them like that now."

"Be glad," Kai growled, standing up and indicating to Hilary to pick up her blade. "You don't want to know _how_ they made him that way."

Tyson was waving his arms around, trying to attract Kyouya's attention. "_Don't say anything,"_ he mouthed when the Lion finally looked his way. "_Just don't."_ Kyouya shrugged. Whilst he was terribly curious about it all, Kai's tone of voice was more than enough to tell him to back off of this subject. Kyouya had been around Kai for long enough now to know that he was a blader worthy of deep respect, and since the cataclysmic battle between Kai and Tyson in the park a few days before Kyouya was more than willing to give it to him.

"Aha!" Everyone jumped as Kenny's yell echoed around the garden. "I'm in!"

"What?" Tyson slid over to sit next to his friend. "You've got into the WBBA database?"

"Yep!" Kenny grinned, fingers dancing over the keys. "Oh, this is _brilliant! _Now I can do whatever I want – look at all the stats I could compare now, and I bet that I could get more information on the blades now so that I can make even better combos, and just _look_ at all that battle data! I didn't know that the WBBA filmed all of them, even the first rounds of the battles for points when Battle Bladers was about to start. Wow..." His voice was full of admiration, and Tyson knew that he wouldn't see his friend over the top of his laptop for several hours – or even days.

"Come on," he called to Hilary. "Let's carry on practising. You were so close on that last launch – with a little less power I bet you could do it properly!"

Hilary stood up with a grin, coming to join Kai and Tyson at the side of Yuu's dish. Kai immediately started drilling her in finding and holding the correct pose for launch, whilst Tyson was offering hints on how to temporarily reduce the explosive amount of power she was putting into every launch.

Tsubasa hurriedly pulled his motorbike helmet back on again and grinned to himself when he noticed the other Metal bladers doing exactly the same with their own hats (and Madoka doing it for a distracted and unresponsive Kenny). No matter how enthusiastic Tyson was about Hilary's chances, no-one wanted a trip to hospital this early in the day.

"Okay, Hilary, give it another go."

"_Let it rip!"_

There was a long, breathless pause, and then Tyson whooped loudly. "Yes! You've done it! Go Hilary!"

The blade was circling the stadium without any of the erratic movement it had shown earlier. Hilary's eyes were bright with excitement, even though the blade wasn't moving with very much power or speed. In fact, a couple of seconds later it stuttered to a halt, tumbling down into the middle of the dish. Hilary scrambled after it, picking it up lovingly and brushing the dust off. She turned to look up at Tyson, who was standing on the edge of the dish, her face lit with a huge smile.

"I knew I could do it!" she laughed. "Thanks, Madoka, it's absolutely perfect! I'd never have been able to do it without your help!"

Tsubasa smiled. So, maybe this trip wasn't just for the Metal bladers to get the benefit of the wisdom the older G-Revolutions had. With their combined knowledge and technical skill, and with the analytic abilities of both Kenny and Madoka on their side, he couldn't think of any reason why the World Championship title shouldn't belong to one of the people currently in the garden within the next few months.

Though he still wasn't going to take the helmet off. Not yet, anyway.

* * *

><p><em>This was another incredibly hard chapter to write, mostly because it had so much information to carry in the second half. HOPEFULLY the next chapter shouldn't take as long. You are all being wonderfully patient.<em>


	21. The Party

_In this chapter there are quite a few scene changes, especially later on. I have tried to make it obvious where they are._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 21 - The Party<strong>

_In which many mysteries are discovered_

It was Tyson's idea, of course. It was _always_ Tyson's idea.

Now that everyone pretty much knew everyone else, he had declared that the best possible thing to happen would be a massive party in the dojo with everyone there, complete with futons spread out on the floor, silly games and probably more than one food fight.

And when Tyson said "everyone"_,_ he _meant_ "everyone".

Putting nineteen people in the dojo wasn't a problem. There was probably room in there for thirty; not that they even had to stay in the dojo, having all of the house to wander around in.

Getting people to talk also wasn't a problem. When you had Madoka, Kenny, Gingka, Daichi and Tyson in one room, along with Yuu and Mystel, talkativeness was never a problem. And most of them now knew each other well enough that mingling wasn't difficult. Of course, the usual suspects kept to the edge, but Yuu's wide green eyes and Gingka's persistence had been employed to drag Tsubasa – _very_ unwillingly - away from the wall, so there was only Kai, really, and he could look after himself.

The "no-blading" rule was also not a problem. Everyone simply left their blades safely locked away at their respective houses, with one notable exception. But that had been expected, and he couldn't exactly attack anyone, so there wouldn't be any repairs needed to the dojo afterwards. Even Ryuga respected the rule that only people with blades could be launched at.

No, the problem was just that they were _all _there. It was hard enough keeping Yuu and Daichi from destroying everything in sight at the best of times, but when surrounded by all of their friends, four of whom were glaring at each other so fiercely that Hilary seriously expected the walls to catch fire, it went from bad to worse.

Of course, there was no way that Tyson would have accepted the idea of perhaps _not_ inviting the Siebolt household at the same time as everyone else. But there was no doubt that it would have made life a lot easier if Brooklyn and Ryuga weren't there, let alone Mystel, who was showing Yuu and Daichi how to hang upside down from the light fitting.

It seemed that Brooklyn and Ryuga had got over their original animosity and were working together as a horribly twisted double act that was scaring the life out of Hilary and Madoka. Both had an unnerving ability to appear out of nowhere as soundlessly as Kai, and both of them were significantly taller than either of the girls. Especially in the case of Ryuga, who had the slightest hint of L-Drago's flame drifting around him, this was _terrifying_. Hiro was having a very difficult time keeping the two of them – or Brooklyn at least – under control.

"I don't think I've ever seen Ryuga smiling like that," Kenta commented to Tyson as they stood next to the food-laden table. "I mean, I've seen him grin evilly before, but that looks more like he's honestly enjoying himself. It's... it's scary."

Tyson shrugged. "Brooklyn's the other way round. He gets scary when he stops smiling, because that's when he's cross." He paused. "Then again, he smiles when he thinks he's winning, and he can be pretty scary when he does that too."

"They're both scary," Hilary huffed, joining them. "I'm not sure which one's worse, actually."

"Well, Ryuga tried to take over the world a month or so ago," Kenta began.

"But Brooklyn moved the entire world into a different dimension inside his extremely twisted mind two years ago, and destroyed a whole city," Tyson interrupted.

"L-Drago's scarier than Zeus," Madoka said, making the trio into a quartet. "Look at what he did to Ryuga – he took him over and then reshaped his body into a kind of half-dragon thing that didn't even act like Ryuga."

"But Zeus scared Kai, and Kai's not scared of anything," argued Hilary.

"I think they're as bad as each other," sighed Hiro, who suddenly materialised next to Hilary and grabbed a sandwich. "Both of them are totally uncontrollable and do whatever they want to get their own way. I'm amazed Garland's still sane after looking after the two of them for so long." He shook his head and disappeared into the small crowd, apparently giving up on his charges and going to talk to Tsubasa.

"They are both very scary," Kenta admitted. "And together they're even scarier."

"Oh come on, this is getting far too serious," Tyson suddenly exclaimed. "Let's get everyone together and play a game or something. Then they won't be trying to scare you all the time."

"Tyson, if you even _think_ about suggesting that we play Truth or Dare, I will tie you up, gag you and lock you in the under-stairs cupboard for the rest of the week."

Tyson yelped in shock and swung round to stare at the taller blader whose cold voice had appeared, like him, out of nowhere. Kai's eyes held absolutely no trace of humour; he meant every word.

"Oh, come on, Kai! It's a fun game!"

Kai's already dangerous expression tightened. "No, it's not. It's the best way for at least four people in this room to attempt to kill each other, and if you remember correctly, the last time you played this so called _game_, your hat ended up on the roof of the hotel and you had to bribe Ray to get it back for you, Max lost his voice after singing the entirety of "One Hundred Green Bottles Standing On The Wall" thanks to Daichi, and I had my blankets stolen on three consecutive nights by one of the Fernandez twins."

Tyson winced, remembering. "Fine. Not Truth or Dare. What, then?"

"How should I know?" And Kai walked off, leaving behind a fuming Tyson.

"And after all that, he just... ugh, he annoys me so much!"

Yuu tugged at his jacket to get his attention. "How about Hide and Seek?" he asked. "It's warm outside, so we can go anywhere."

Tyson grinned. "Good idea, Yuu. Hey, everyone, who wants to play Hide and Seek?"

.

It took nearly half an hour to persuade the majority of bladers in the room that Hide and Seek was not the worst idea that Tyson had ever had (done mostly by pointing out that it was Yuu's idea in the first place) and then another fifteen minutes to persuade them to come and join in. Brooklyn was summarily banned from using Zeus to find people, or to hide in another dimension, and Ryuga had been told that the slightest hint of L-Drago appearing would lead to Tyson and Daichi both going for their blades and taking him out. Having no desire to test the still-weakened L-Drago against the two other powerful dragons, Ryuga reluctantly promised not to use his constellation to cheat.

Kai had refused to join them on principle, and as Tyson had been the one to suggest the game, he was the designated seeker. So, as everyone else scattered to hide, Tyson sat in the middle of the dojo floor and began counting. Kai simply rolled his eyes at the childishness of his companions and went to help himself to some more food whilst everyone else was out.

.

"Ninety-nine, one hundred!" Tyson sang out, opening his eyes. He was completely alone in the dojo, apart from Kai who was sitting in the corner and ignoring the rest of the world. Hah. Typical Kai. But never mind him, he had seventeen other people to find!

The easiest to find was surprisingly _not_ Benkei, the biggest, but Hiro. He was standing on the windowsill in the main room, hidden behind the curtains. Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten that curtains tend to cover windows, which are made to be seen through. Tyson easily spotted him as he ran around the _outside_ of the house first.

Grumpily (whenever they had played as children, it had always taken Tyson hours to find him) Hiro returned to the dojo, which was surprisingly peaceful. Grampa had come out to start clearing the table and set out the room for bed, and Kai was speaking softly into a mobile phone in a language Hiro could only assume was Russian. He wondered if Tyson and the rest of the gang knew that Kai actually had a mobile phone, and exactly how valuable that piece of information would be as blackmail. Then again, Kai still didn't trust him after the events at BEGA, so that probably wouldn't be the best of ideas either.

As the silver-haired teen was clearly going to ignore him completely, Hiro settled down on the floor with a plate of pilfered food and started planning his next visit to his father's dig site. He couldn't leave for too long, of course, because even Garland's saint-like patience could be severely tried by the unholy alliance of lightning and death otherwise known as Brooklyn and Ryuga. Hiro had absolutely no idea how the two of them had worked out their differences, but one thing was certain – it had been very effective. For the last couple of days, they had been almost inseparable.

And talking of that, where on earth could they be hiding?

.

At that moment in time, only three people knew the answer to Hiro's question. Two of them were, naturally, Brooklyn and Ryuga themselves, who had headed for the garden in order to find good hiding places. Brooklyn was lying on his back in the flowerbed, a small bat flitting around his head. A couple of feet away, Ryuga was sitting against a tree, toying with L-Drago's launcher which was still on his arm. It was almost impossible to see either of them unless the seeker pushed his way through several large bushes and part of the hedge.

Almost impossible. There was one other way to see them, and that was how the third person had discovered where the two were. Ray was balanced high in the tree above Ryuga's head, keeping completely still so as to almost vanish into the trunk. He had scrambled up into the thickest-leaved tree he could find when the group had scattered to hide, knowing that Tyson would never look up. At least, that was the plan.

It seemed that neither Brooklyn nor Ryuga had seen him either, or if they had they were ignoring him. In the near-darkness, it was only Ray's superb eyesight that allowed him to see Brooklyn lifting a hand to let the bat to wrap its tiny claws around his fingers, the membranes of the wings stretching across the rest of his hand. Ryuga didn't take any notice, clicking the holder for L-Drago open and taking out the blade. He seemed to be examining it in the faint light coming from the house.

"Can you remember it? When he took over?"

The murmur came out of nowhere, and Ray suddenly realised that he wasn't certain who had spoken.

"Yes," came the returning whisper in the dark, equally impossible to recognise. "I remember it all. The darkness... the call."

There was a laugh. "That rhymes."

The only response was a rather undignified snort, which still could have come from either of the two below. "It wasn't meant to."

"Did it hurt? When he changed your body?"

A shudder ran up and down Ray's spine as he realised what Brooklyn – or Ryuga, whoever it was – was talking about, and he wrapped his arms around the tree a little tighter to make sure that he absolutely did _not_ tumble out. This was one conversation that nobody should fall into, however literally.

"How long did you know about it?"

"What do you mean?" That voice was a bit lower, a bit more like a growl. Ray decided that it was probably Ryuga.

"Did you get any warning before he did it?"

The soft chuckle made Ray stop and think for a bit, because it sounded a lot more like Brooklyn than the cruel laugh he had heard from Ryuga that first time they had all met. "Not much warning. The battle before he took over, my control was slipping. But... I'm still not sure."

"Not sure of what?" A movement below finally identified the speaker as Brooklyn as the tiny bat flitted past Ray's head.

"I'm not sure exactly what it was that happened," Ryuga explained quietly. "I don't know if he took over... or whether I just let him."

Brooklyn was sitting up now, facing the other blader with his white-coated arms wrapped around his knees. "You think you let him take over?"

Ray froze as Ryuga tilted his head back, the yellow irises glittering even in the dark. "He was much stronger than when I'd first taken him. I didn't realise how exhausting it would be to be full of rage all the time, because he was always hungry, always taking. Some days it was a struggle just to find the energy to get mad at something."

"But you did, clearly."

Ryuga laughed as he looked back at his companion, and this time it was closer to the horrific sound Ray had heard that first day. "You don't need to know about that. No-one does, except him."

The silence that followed was surprisingly gentle, and Ray even dared to take a breath. The sound of Tyson apparently finding Hilary and Madoka could easily be heard on the heavy night air – he wasn't very far away from their hiding place.

"I need to get him back under control." Ryuga's voice, when it came, was clear and determined, though still quiet just in case Tyson's hearing was sharper than it appeared. "No matter how long it takes. I want him as firmly under my control as Zeus is under yours. I don't want him fighting me any more, and I'm not letting anyone take him from me ever again."

Brooklyn stayed still and quiet, apparently waiting for Ryuga to continue. When it became clear that nothing else was forthcoming, he asked softly "Where will you go?"

"Who says I'm going anywhere?" Ryuga growled, his voice holding more than a hint of shock. Ray couldn't see, but he suspected that Brooklyn was smiling in that strange, calm way of his, down below in the dark.

"Because you're Ryuga," he said. "You don't belong in cities, with so many other bladers around you to try and distract you or make you practice their way, not yours."

Ryuga sighed. "You've got a point. If he's around other bladers, I know L-Drago will just keep trying to get to them and their power. And though that'll certainly make him stronger, it's very distracting having your constellation's attention wandering all the time." He tilted his head back again, and his eyes gleamed in the dark like a cat's. "Wouldn't you say, Ray?"

Ray almost fell out of the tree in shock. "Y-you knew I was here?" he hissed, tightening his grip on the trunk.

"Of course!" Brooklyn exclaimed, his voice deceptively full of smiles. "But you're nice – we don't mind you being here."

"How..." Ray began, but two soft lights from below answered his question before he could get any further. Zeus' green eyes glowed with something that Ray desperately hoped was simple mischief, whilst L-Drago's flames settled, nimbus-like, around Ryuga.

"Your tiger is very fierce, and very strong," Ryuga said. "And he's also very loud."

Deep in the space he occupied in Ray's mind, Driger growled threateningly, thunder before lightning. Shushing him gently, Ray slid out of the tree, landing cat-like on all-fours in front of Ryuga, who gave him a steady look.

"So how do you win the loyalty of a bit-beast?" he asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" It was Brooklyn who responded before Ray had a chance to get his thoughts in order.

"Do you... win them from opponents? Do you choose them? Do you find them?"

Ray exchanged a look with the serenely-smiling Brooklyn, and rolled his eyes as he realised that he was the one in the best position to explain, as little as he wanted to. "They choose us," he said. "No-one really knows how it works, but forcing a bit-beast to work with you instead of it choosing you is never the strongest option. But we also have to work to earn and keep their respect and loyalty. Driger has left me before because I... because he lost his respect for me. I wasn't battling as well as I should have been, and he just went, until I did something to earn him back again." Suddenly realising what Ryuga might have actually been asking, he paused. "Do... do you think it might be the same with L-Drago?"

Ryuga never had a chance to answer. At that exact moment, Tyson's head popped through the bushes, wearing a triumphant expression as well as his hat. "There you are!" he crowed. "I'd never have found you if I hadn't seen Zeus – this is a really good hiding place and you were being really quiet!"

Sure enough, Zeus' massive body was more than visible over the tops of the bushes, his eyes glowing from within to identify and locate him even if his enormous shadow failed to do so. Brooklyn groaned and quickly recalled his bit-beast as he stood up to follow Tyson back into the dojo. They had been caught fair and square.

But they certainly weren't the first to be caught.

.

When Tyson had started counting, Gingka had raced for the kitchen, intending to hide beneath the large table that was draped in a cloth that reached the ground. He knew from experience that finding suitable hiding places in the mostly open-plan house was more difficult than most people expected, though at least the roof was out of bounds. However, when he lifted up the corner of the cloth he found himself nose-to-nose with Kenny, who pushed him away.

"Get back!" the other boy hissed. "I'm already sharing with Kenta and there's not enough room for another person here!"

Disappointed but determined not to be the first one caught, Gingka fled the kitchen and headed straight for Tyson's room and the relative safety of under the bed.

Except that once again he was thwarted. Max and Daichi were already hidden away there, though they proved more welcoming than Kenny, and allowed Gingka to scramble underneath to join them.

"Hey," Gingka whispered to Max. "How likely is Tyson to look under here?"

"Quite likely," Max admitted. "But he'll go hunting through the kitchen first, I bet, so we won't be first to be found."

That was fair enough, Gingka decided, and was about to ask something else when the door to the bedroom blew open again. Instantly, all three boys froze, until a blonde whirlwind shot across the room and dived under the bed.

"Hi!" said Yuu. "Oh wow, there's loads of people under here, this is awesome!"

"Shhh!" Daichi hissed, managing somehow to be even louder than Yuu. Max elbowed him.

"Ha! Found you, Hiro!" came a distant yell, followed by the sounds of a disgruntled Hiro stomping back to the dojo. The four under the bed exchanged looks. Well, at least they weren't first.

From the sounds of it, Tyson had indeed headed for the kitchen, so Gingka took his chance to ask Max something that had been on his mind for a while. "Hey, Max? Is... is that Tala guy trustworthy?"

Max was silent for a long moment, listening for any approaching Tysons whilst considering his answer. Eventually, he said "Yes. You can trust him to always say or do what is right, no matter what."

Yuu seemed to consider this, then said "But was he being serious about the... the World Championships?" Even though his voice was quiet, he couldn't disguise the excitement in it.

"Tala doesn't lie," Max informed him sternly. "Not unless it's about his ability to keep blading whilst injured. For something like that... no, Tala was definitely telling the truth."

Now it was Yuu and Gingka's turn to exchange excited looks. "So it's real," Gingka breathed. "We'll finally get to find out who the best blader in the world is."

"Yay!" Yuu squeaked, making Daichi jump and clamp his hand over the blonde's mouth. "MmmrflemmphflemitGingka!"

Gingka shook his head in amusement as Daichi took his hand away. "Say that again? But slower."

"I wonder how they'll do it, Gingka," Yuu repeated. "Will we fight in teams? In pairs? Solo, like in Battle Bladers? We'll be in the winning group, no matter what it is!"

"They still need to pick a director," Gingka pointed out. "But we'll find out soon enough."

"Find what out soon enough?" Tyson asked, sticking his head under the bed.

"AAAAAHHH!"

"Whoa, how'd you get so many people under my bed?" Tyson laughed as the four of them clambered out stiffly. "That's amazing. I don't have many more people to find now. Everyone seemed to be hiding together for some reason. Hilary and Madoka were in the larder, and I nearly missed them because Benkei was in there too and he blocked them from view. And Kenny and Kenta were under the table...I'm off to look for Brooklyn and Ryuga – I bet they'll be hiding together too." And with that, he disappeared.

Gingka stretched and helped Max scramble to his feet. "Let's go back to the dojo," he suggested. "Then we can see who else has been caught already."

.

It turned out that Tyson had actually listed all of the people he had caught, which meant that there were still seven missing. Kenny and Kenta were sitting in the far corner, apparently deeply involved in a conversation, whilst Benkei was hovering near the food table as Grampa Granger refilled some of the plates. Hilary and Madoka were also talking quietly, not too far away from Kai, who appeared to be asleep. Both Max and Daichi knew better, though.

"You got caught too, then?"

Gingka spun round to find himself face to face with Hiro. He hadn't seen much of Tyson's brother over the past few weeks, apart from in the precious few photos that Tyson had in his room. After all, the older man didn't live in the same house, living and working with the group that had once been his students in BEGA instead.

"Yeah, but it was fun while it lasted," Yuu interrupted. "I wonder where all the others are, though. I wanted to talk to Mystel again."

"I'm more worried about Brooklyn and Ryuga, actually," Hiro admitted, leaning against the wall. "Who knows what the two of them could get up to if they're left to their own devices for too long?"

"True," Gingka grinned, remembering the amount of chaos he had always been able to cause with Hyoma back in Koma Village in extremely short spaces of time. "But there can't be very many more places to look, surely? I mean, there were four people just hiding under the bed, and there's not actually very many good hiding places left."

Hiro snorted. "That's because this house is so ridiculously open-plan. I think I saw Mystel attempting to hide behind a pot-plant, but that's the only person I've seen. I'm surprised that Tyson hasn't found him yet, though – he wasn't exactly very well hidden."

Gingka was about to say something else when the dojo doors opened, and three equally tall people walked in. Ray was in between Brooklyn and Ryuga, talking softly to the latter.

"I wonder what they could be talking about?" Gingka wondered out loud. "I've never seen Ryuga voluntarily talk to someone like that."

Max had overheard him. "It doesn't really matter," he said, sliding into the conversation. "Ray's one of the nicest people I know – he'll know exactly how to talk to Ryuga."

"I suppose," Hiro sighed, rubbing his head. "Ryuga confuses me so much."

"They're talking about places to train far away from other people," Yuu said, his sharp ears having picked up the other conversation. "I didn't know Ryuga was planning to go anywhere. I wanted him to stay around."

Gingka put his hand on the young boy's shoulder, understanding the unspoken words. "I know," he smiled sadly. "Maybe when he comes back, though, he'll be able to battle you properly, and then you can prove yourself to him."

Yuu nodded. "He'll be fine, though. He's good at surviving in the wild. I can wait."

"Wait for who?"

"Ryuga, of course – oh! Tsubasa!" Yuu looked up at the tall, silver-haired blader with a dazzling smile. "You got found, then?"

"Why else would I be here?" Tsubasa laughed. "Tyson's done really well – there's loads of people in here."

The dojo was returning to its pre-game noisiness as everyone began to splinter off into smaller groups to continue conversations and start new ones. Tsubasa watched as Yuu brazenly approached Ryuga and Ray, only to have Brooklyn spot him. Moments later the two of them were conspiring together in the middle of the room, two bladers with white coats and wild hair, the mysteries of their respective teams. It was good to see that Yuu had found someone else to confide in so soon after Ryuga had broken his trust, even if it would only be temporary. Besides, Tsubasa hadn't seen anything to make him worry about Yuu's proximity to the red-haired blader, unlike with Ryuga. It was a good result all round.

Tsubasa retreated to the edge of the room to carry on watching the convoluted interactions going on between the two so different and yet so similar groups of bladers. He wasn't too surprised when Garland suddenly dropped down beside him. "Hey."

"Garland," Tsubasa acknowledged. "Tyson found you, then?"

The other silver-haired blader shrugged. "It's Tyson's house, and I've only been here a couple of times. Of course he was going to find me pretty quickly."

"He hasn't found Mystel yet, though." Tsubasa stretched, suddenly realising that it was completely dark outside. Grampa and Hiro were ferrying blankets and bedding into the dojo in small piles, setting it all at the side for whenever people decided to go to bed – which, admittedly, didn't look like it was going to be any time soon.

Beside him, Garland sighed. "I hope he's not getting into too much trouble. Mystel's a handful at the best of times."

"Sounds just like Yuu," Tsubasa grinned.

"Just like me?" Garland looked very confused.

"No, no, like _Yuu. _Little guy over there."

Garland's expression cleared. "Oh yes. Small, over-active and ridiculously bubbly. Did I see Mystel trying to teach him to swing from the rafters earlier?"

"Yes." It was clear from Tsubasa's tone that he was not impressed by this. "Does Mystel like ice-cream, by any chance?"

Garland threw back his head and laughed, such a surprising sound that several of the bladers in the room looked around to see what was going on. "They're so alike."

"You can say that again," Tsubasa grumbled, watching as Yuu waved his arms around excitedly, demonstrating something to Brooklyn. From the little he could see, Brooklyn had Libra in his hands, and was examining it with an expert eye. Tsubasa kept watching until the older blader returned the yellow blade to its owner, not noticing until he glanced sideways that Garland had been watching him the whole time.

"You protect him," Garland said when Tsubasa glared him into explanation. "You don't want anything to happen to him."

Tsubasa looked away. "I don't know what it is about that kid. He's like the annoying little brother I've never had, and never really wanted. But when Ryuga... when I saw what Ryuga did to him, all I cared about was forcing him to see what it had done to Yuu. Kenta dealt with Reiji, who was the guy who did the actual damage, but when Ryuga rejected Yuu's friendship, that was the final straw. I couldn't just do _nothing._"

To his surprise, Garland just nodded. "Mystel's older than Yuu, of course, but I know the feeling. All of the BEGA team are like my family. When Boris and Hiro forced Brooklyn too far to get him to fight Tyson at full power, I kept trying to get them to swap him for me so that he wouldn't be hurt - I'd have done the same for Mystel in a heartbeat. I might have failed Brooklyn then, but I swore I never would again – that's why he's living with me now."

Tsubasa allowed himself a small, almost fond smile. "You and I are very similar, aren't we?"

Garland's returning smile was equally gentle. "Your principles are strong, but you're not afraid of fighting with everything you have in order to claim your victory."

"And I'm not the only one to feel responsible for a young, wild-haired, ice-cream-loving blader with more power than people expect," Tsubasa responded.

The other young man smiled even more broadly. "Though talking of that, where on earth _is_ Mystel? I think he's the winner – I can't see him anywhere and everyone else is here."

"No, Kyouya's not here either," Kenny suddenly interrupted from his seat a couple of metres away. Tsubasa and Garland glanced at each other.

"What's the betting they're hiding together?" they asked at exactly the same time.

.

Tsubasa and Garland knew their friends far too well. Kyouya and Mystel were indeed hiding together, and much to Mystel's amusement Tyson had already looked in their hiding place twice and hadn't spotted them.

"_How_ did you get up there?" Kyouya asked, his voice muffled by the pile of clothes and towels on his head. The pair of them were in the large wardrobe in Hiro's old room, and Mystel had _somehow_ managed to tuck himself onto the top shelf and then drape a tablecloth in front of him so that he couldn't be seen. Kyouya, on the other hand, was at the bottom, covered in fallen clothes and towels from the shelf Mystel was on. So far, Tyson hadn't thought to pull the material aside to check, obviously under the impression that nobody could possibly be agile enough to reach the higher shelves, or thin enough to creep into the lower ones.

"Training," Mystel whispered back, peering over the edge of his shelf. "Flexibility, strength and fluidity of movement – all the characteristics of water. That's my element, so that's how I train."

Kyouya didn't really understand, but the idea of using the strengths of the wind as his training was... well, it was certainly different to Wolf Canyon. That was entirely endurance.

"Do you mean that you try to train to be like water?" he asked, still keeping his voice low.

"Yeah, that's it," Mystel answered. "When I can move with the water like I'm one with it, that's when I'm strongest, and that's when I understand my blade best."

"Hmmm," Kyouya mused, shifting a little as the crick in his neck became too uncomfortable. What if he was to try and become like the tornado? He'd never actually seen a real tornado, so he wasn't sure how that would work. But if it made him stronger and more likely to defeat Gingka and Pegasus, whenever the latter returned, then he was willing to do anything.

So what were real tornadoes like? He knew that they were tall funnels of fast-flowing wind that could also move over the ground, and he knew that they could be horrifically destructive, but that was about it. He really needed to get out and find some proper tornadoes to watch, at least, just so he could understand them. If he could do that, then maybe he could learn how to make his own attacks stronger, could learn how to become one with the wind.

He liked the sound of that. He would become the wind, and then the wings of the Eagle and the Pegasus would be helpless against his fury.

"And because it's fun."

The sudden voice made Kyouya jump, and he hit his head on the shelf above him. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Oops, sorry." Mystel didn't sound sorry at all. Kyouya frowned.

"What do you mean, it's _fun?"_

"Training!"

Now this was unexpected. If he was honest, it was also pretty inexplicable. "How is _training _fun?"

Mystel laughed, though it wasn't as loud as it could have been. "Because blading is fun. The better I am at blading, the more fun it is, so the more I train the better I get and the more fun it gets."

"That still makes no sense."

There was a half-laugh, half-sigh from high above. "I have fun blading. I _want_ to blade, so it makes sense that I _want_ to train to get better at blading. I'm doing the two things that I love most in the world – jumping around and defying gravity, and being with my bit-beast Poseidon. And when I'm training, I'm blading, aren't I? So it must be fun."

"Mystel? Kyouya? I give up, okay!" Tyson's voice floated through the house. "Can't you just come out? Otherwise we'll have to spend AGES looking for you."

"Are you going?" Kyouya whispered up to his hiding companion, who let out a stifled giggle.

"Of course not!" he hissed back. "I'm not stupid!"

There was silence in the wardrobe for several minutes after that as Tyson repeated his call through the rest of the house. Kyouya was considering everything that Mystel had just said. He had never really considered blading like that, and he wasn't sure if he agreed with the happy-go-lucky blonde. After all, blading was a way to demonstrate your power, to defeat those who were your true rivals, and to prove yourself to the world. Once it became mixed up with fun,then there was a very clear problem, at least to Kyouya's mind. If you thought the game was fun, it would only be a small step to saying that the victories and losses were "just for fun" as well, that they _didn't matter._

Victories and losses meant everything to Kyouya. Fun meant... well, pretty much nothing. The game was more than just a game to him – it was all he had and all he was.

Suddenly, the door to the wardrobe burst open. Unable to see through the thick towel covering his eyes, Kyouya froze.

"Alright, Mystel, that's enough." Garland's voice was stern. "You've had your fun, now stop showing off and get down from there."

From the silence that followed, Kyouya realised that Mystel was pretending not to exist. Unfortunately for him, Garland knew him far too well. There was a rustle and then a weight fell onto Kyouya's head – the sheet that had been hiding Mystel.

"Gaaaarland..." Mystel complained. "You're not seeker, it doesn't count!"

"Yes, it does," Garland informed him frostily. "Don't you remember the rules? Anyone who's been caught is allowed to help the seeker."

"You made that up!" Mystel accused. From the sound of it he was manoeuvring himself out of his rather cramped hiding place, apparently deciding that the game was up anyway, even if Garland was cheating. Kyouya didn't have time to think about the implications before a Mystel-sized lump dropped on top of him.

"Oooffff!"

There was another rustle, and light poured into Kyouya's hiding place as Garland pulled back the sheets and towels. "Oh! Hello Kyouya. I was right, I see."

Kyouya had no idea what he was talking about, and subsequently ignored him in favour of clambering out of the lowest shelf. Mystel gave him an apologetic look as he straightened up, and Kyouya glared at him.

"Come on," Garland ordered. "Back to the dojo. You two are the last, everyone's waiting for you."

Actually, only Tyson seemed to be waiting for them. The rest of the group had separated into little clusters, talking and laughing and eating with friends new and old. Kyouya headed straight for Kenny, who looked rather surprised to see the green-haired teen drop down beside him and Kenta, but quickly included him in the conversation. Mystel, on the other hand, was almost immediately spotted by Yuu and Daichi, and was just as quickly dragged into their little group, which had grown to include Brooklyn and Gingka.

"Guys?" Tyson called as everyone started to spread out. "Guys? Who's for another round...?"

* * *

><p>The next morning was quiet, at least inside. Outside, the storm had finally broken the summer heat to lash rain against the walls of the dojo. It was this which woke Tsubasa, when he realised that the window above his head was letting all the water in. Sighing, he got to his feet to close it, wondering what on earth had possessed him to fall asleep against a wooden wall when there was a perfectly comfortable futon not three feet away (though admittedly, said futon now contained Hiro Granger).<p>

Then again, no-one else seemed to have decided to use the available futons either, which led Tsubasa to the belief that either they were infected with some deadly poison he didn't know about, or everyone was too deep in conversation to notice that they'd fallen asleep.

He frowned. If he was beginning to believe that the futons were coated in poison, he'd had less sleep than he thought.

"It's half past six," said a voice from his left, and Tsubasa looked down at the silvery-grey head of Kai.

Tsubasa made some non-committal sound and dropped down beside the Phoenix. "Figures."

He and Kai appeared to be the only two awake of the entire dojo. Just beyond Kai was the sleeping figure of Garland, who had probably placed himself there so that anyone – well, Brooklyn - would have to trip over him to get out of the dojo door. Kai didn't seem too bothered by the fact that one of his rivals now had his head on Kai's shoulder, though Tsubasa decided that was more to do with the fact that it would be more bother shoving the bearer of Apollon away than to just leave him where he was.

Tyson was snoring away next to the buffet table, sandwiched between Kenny and Benkei. It seemed that Tyson and Benkei had managed a midnight feast too. Well, probably a four in the morning feast, Tsubasa corrected himself, but the principle still stood. Privately, he was surprised that Gingka hadn't joined them.

Ray and Kyouya were sleeping back-to-back, as if on guard against encroaching Yuus or Daichis. The encroachers in question were in fact part of a circular tangle of limbs made up of Daichi, Brooklyn, Gingka, Yuu, Mystel and Max. They must have been having an in-depth conversation about something before they dropped off, as their heads were quite close together, highlighting the amusing fact that all of the red-heads and all of the blonde-haired people had managed to group together. Tsubasa envied them a little, as any conversation involving Brooklyn, Mystel, Gingka and Yuu was bound to be highly entertaining, or at least come out with some very strange and probably ice-cream related tangents.

Hilary and Madoka were lying on the bench at the far end of the dojo, one at either end. They at least had blankets draped over them, unlike almost everyone else.

In fact, apart from Hiro, the only other person in the room who looked like he had actually _meant _to fall asleep was Ryuga, who was wrapped up in his own white greatcoat and a single blanket, leaning against the corner of the wall. In fact, he didn't just look like he meant to fall asleep there, he looked downright _comfortable,_ something that Tsubasa was fairly certain was not allowed to be possible when leaning against a wooden wall.

But even this wasn't the greatest puzzle to Tsubasa's barely-awake mind. No, the person who was confusing Tsubasa the most at the moment was in fact Kenta. Kenta, who was fast asleep on his side, on the only other occupied futon (well, partly on, anyway). He was tightly rolled up in a blanket and seemed perfectly happy that way.

But still Tsubasa couldn't see how he had managed to get there by accident. Because there was no way on earth that Kenta would have _chosen _to fall asleep with his head pillowed on Ryuga's crossed ankles, was there?

* * *

><p><em>AN – and the chapter went into the morning purely for the sake of lots of sleepy beybladers, Tsubasa being all fuzzy-headed like Juniper is when the alarm goes off, all the red-heads and blondes in a bundle on the floor, and the frankly bizarre double-act that is Ryuga and Kenta in the third series... it just **works.** _

_A/N 2 – for those who don't know, "Ten Green Bottles" is a nursery song that involves removing one of the aforementioned bottles each verse by it falling off the wall and breaking. It's a counting song, if you will, normally from ten to zero green bottles. However, Daichi being Daichi decided it was so much more **fun** to get Max to sing it from one hundred. Trust Juniper when she says that she did actually try this once, and never will again. **Ever.**_


	22. A Taste Of Things To Come

_This chapter gets a bit strange. We're inside Brooklyn's head, and no matter that Zeus isn't controlling him, he is still _just as nasty_ as first-season-Ryuga. That's why they're such good friends. He also doesn't quite look at the world in the way most people do, as here he is showing symptoms of some mixed form of synaesthesia. This is not meant to be a realistic representation of what the real-life condition is like, and wasn't meant to offend anyone._

_Oh, and 10,000 hits, guys? You people are awesome._

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><p><strong>Chapter 22 – A Taste Of Things To Come<strong>

_In which Brooklyn causes trouble_

"Let it rip!"

"Go Driger!"

"Wow! That's really good, Hilary, keep it up!"

Brooklyn looked over the top of his book and sighed. The G-Revolutions and their guests, along with the entire Siebolt household, were once again back at the Revolution Stadium. Mystel, Yuu and Daichi had gone haring off into the woods to go climbing or something silly like that, whilst everyone else was clustered around the large dish on top of the hill. Today was Hilary's first chance to properly battle someone. Ray, that foolish tiger-snarl boy, had volunteered to be her first opponent, and had also made the brave decision to battle her without a hard-hat on his head – unlike Tyson, who was wearing the samurai helmet and getting a lot of strange looks because of it.

"Oh come on!" Hilary yelled as her blade stuttered against a tiny stone at the bottom of the dish. "Don't give up, keep going!"

"Hilary, go left, go left!"

"Oh no you don't! Driger, attack!"

The two blades were circling at top speed, Driger easily keeping out of reach of Hilary's newer bey by dint of his master's greater skill. But Hilary was more than determined to catch him, and at least three attacks had properly connected so far. Even though he knew the outcome already, and in his opinion the battle had passed into "Boring" about ten seconds after it started, Brooklyn couldn't help being slightly surprised by the amount of will-power the willow-dusk girl was showing.

Max grinned as he watched the continuing battle. "Wow. At this rate, Hilary's gonna be able to kick our butts in a few years."

Tyson laughed. "She's certainly stubborn about practice, I'll give her that."

Whirls of dust sprang up from the dish as Driger danced out of reach of Hilary's attacks, always waiting until the very last second before darting to one side, thunder-bright as he leapt around the hollow. Ray looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself, and behind the scowl of concentration it was clear that Hilary shared the feeling. Madoka's laptop was letting out sporadic bleeps as new information trickled in from the blade she had built, whilst Kenny had taken over monitoring Driger. Now that he had full access to the WBBA central database, he was keener than ever to make some design changes to not only the G-Revolutions' blades, but also those of their visitors. Simply combining them was one thing, but if they could be fully integrated – or better, if they could change between modes...

"HAH!"

A flash of rocket-silver whistled towards Tsubasa's head, and he reflexively ducked, letting it sail down the hill. On the far side of the dish, Ray's grin told them all what had happened, if Hilary racing off down the hill after her bey didn't.

"Hey, why'd you duck?" Hilary complained as she clambered back up to the stadium. "You could have caught that easily!"

"I know," Tsubasa answered quietly, with no hint of lime-tasting arrogance in his tone. Good. "But it wouldn't have been right. It's not right to catch someone else's blade for them unless they've asked you to in advance."

Hilary's expression took on a confused cast. "What?" she asked. "That makes no sense. I've been around these guys for years and they've never said anything like that."

"That's because in most cases, our stadium-outs have either rocketed into the stadium or have trickled to a halt by our feet." To nearly everyone's surprise, it was Kai who spoke. "It just hasn't come up before. But Tsubasa is right. It is extremely ill-mannered to catch someone else's blade."

"They're a part of us," Tyson explained. "Blader spirit isn't just one way, you know. They're as much a part of us as we are of them. It would be like... I don't know, like picking up someone's photo album without asking and pulling all the pictures out to scatter across the floor."

Hilary nodded solemnly. "Okay," she said. "No catching other people's blades without asking. Got it."

Zeus purred softly in Brooklyn's mind, and Brooklyn acknowledged his point. "You know, that analogy isn't very good, Tyson."

"Brooklyn," Garland warned, his voice weary and tasting of custard, clearly saying _Please don't start an argument. _Brooklyn ignored him, as he always did. An argument might at least spice up his otherwise dull afternoon.

"It isn't, though! Photographs are just silly little bits of paper. Blades are much more important. If you caught one, you'd be holding someone's - what would you call it? Heart? Soul? Spirit? - in your hands. And if you can't understand that, then you don't really deserve to be called a blader."

"Brooklyn!" Garland cried, and his scandalised, orange-peel tone was reflected in almost every face around the dish. Hilary just looked crestfallen.

"I-I know I don't know much about the... the deeper stuff at the moment," she said quietly. "But I'm trying really hard to learn. It wasn't that long ago that I even learned to see bit-beasts."

Brooklyn shrugged. If he was honest, he didn't care about whether she could see bit-beasts or not – she was so far below him in terms of power that she didn't even register. She didn't even have a bit-beast herself, so what use could she be to him?

"Just ignore him," Hiro advised Hilary, much to Brooklyn's fury. "He's only doing it to get a reaction."

Even that would have been fine, and Brooklyn would have settled for silently sulking in red for the next half hour before getting distracted by a pretty bird, had he not looked up at just the wrong moment and spotted Kai rolling his eyes, his expression clearly one of amused exasperation. Instantly, Zeus roared into life behind his eyes, sending purple-dark hatred rushing across his vision like a veil. How _dare_ that little fire-bird laugh at him, the King?

"So you think you know better?" he snarled, words of vinegar trickling through his lips. Kai's eyes snapped up to meet his, suddenly fierce and predatory.

"The mere act of having a blade has never made anyone a blader," he answered coldly. "I thought we had finally managed to drill that into your head. You're not a blader until you understand why it is not and never shall be _just_ a game."

He had heard this line so many times from Kai that it wasn't even much of a joke any more. "Look, Kai, isn't it time to play a different record? That one's getting a bit boring."

He got the reaction he wanted instantly. Four of the G-Revolutions rose to their feet – Kai with lemonade-anger in his eyes, Tyson, Ray and Daichi to push him back or to block his path to Brooklyn.

"No." Hiro's voice was as calm as strawberry-ice-cream in comparison to Kai. "Both of you, stop this right now."

"Brooklyn, give Zeus to me," Garland ordered sharply. "Don't even think about challenging each other, either of you. It's really not that long since we got this part of the park fixed up – I don't want to have it destroyed again so soon."

Forcing down the yellow-bright rage, Brooklyn met Kai's crystal-cold eyes and nodded briefly. As much as he hated to admit it, Garland had a point. The park looked extremely beautiful at this time of year, and it would be a shame to do any damage to it, or to the small colony of sparrows nearby.

The moment of silence that followed this agreement forced under the eyes of seven other bladers was just a little too long. Max scrambled to his feet, all sherbet-fizzy, and looked around at the assembled group. "Hey, who wants to battle?"

As a distracting technique, it certainly worked. All of the bladers suddenly refocused on Max and the green blade he held in his hand, expressions either hopeful or calculating. But before anyone else could speak up, Benkei blurted out "I haven't battled yet! Let me have a go!"

Max's grin could have outshone the sun as he darted off to the other side of the stadium. "You're on, Benkei!"

Everyone began to shift positions so that they could see the dish more easily, though Brooklyn was quite happy to stay where he was. Maybe he could finish his book if this went on.

"Ryuga," Tyson called suddenly. "Why don't you battle me when Maxie and Benkei are done?"

Everyone looked around, attention drawn to the white-haired young man in their midst. He had been sitting silently throughout, barely moving at all, his eyes set on some place a long time ago, or maybe just very far away. Brooklyn wondered where that place was, and whether Ryuga would ever tell him about it. Was it the place where Ryuga became coffee-tasting, bitter and angry and full of boiling rage, or was it the place where he became wild raspberries, only found in the perfect place at the perfect time, but worth all the trouble of reaching and waiting? Brooklyn had only seen raspberry-Ryuga once before, at the party at Tyson's house, but it was always worth waiting to see if he could spot him again.

But now Ryuga's eyes were snapping back to the present, and in Brooklyn's mind he was olives and sprouts in his sharpness and the way half the bladers at least recoiled from him. Only Kai remained completely unmoved.

"You really think you would be able to challenge _me, _Tyson?" Ryuga asked. "Just you, no help from _friends,_ all on your own?" When Tyson made no response, he let the corner of his lip curl up to expose the smallest tip of dragon-fang. "You wouldn't last a minute."

The air crackled with tension, and all of them saw the purple haze rising around Ryuga's body. Slowly it trickled up, too thin to see, too thick to ignore, and began to shift and change. Layer upon layer of darkness built up, swirling with some kind of belligerent energy as it took the forms of more and more horrific shapes lit only by tiny pinpricks of light from the sun behind. Smoke turned to black fire and licked up the sides of the ever-growing column, dragging it towards the sky in a demented spiral.

Deep within the darkness, three sets of twin flames flashed red.

There was a collective intake of breath, and Brooklyn's eyes went a little wide. So this was what L-Drago was like with his true master? There was nothing coffee-tasting about this dual-creature of one mind and two bodies. This was red-gold shining in the dark, a scent or a flavour he had never come across before, not even in their earlier battles.

"Is that L-Drago?" Tyson asked, his voice full of tomato-flavoured curiosity. "Now I see what the others were talking about all those weeks ago."

"What do you - " Ryuga began, but he never managed to finish.

Tyson stretched out his hand, and Dragoon poured out of the air like liquid light, scales glimmering with a thousand colours. His mouth opened in an earth-shattering roar that revealed every one of his glittering, serrated teeth, and the arm-length claws drew sparks from each other as they clashed. Endless loops of deep blue arched across the sky, supported by strong legs with enough power to charge and twist and leap and pounce all at once. Solid as the earth below, Dragoon reared up opposite the cloudy darkness and growled his challenge, the sound almost below hearing.

Cold, blue-grey eyes locked with fire-filled red as the wind began to pick up. First it was leaves that scattered across the floor like little mice, followed by branches and twigs. Kai's scarf trembled and snapped, a pennant that streamed sideways to match the one that tugged at Gingka's neck. Tsubasa's hair lifted slightly, beginning to sway like some hypnotic cobra.

The winds towered higher and higher, tearing at the darkness and ripping it to shreds, revealing the triplicate dragon hidden within. Brooklyn could taste fresh-cut grass in the air, lights dancing across his eyes and drawing the blackness into them. The roar of sound was incredible. A jumble of tastes and scents rushed through his mind, too fast for him to identify, apart from the over-riding sense of sherbet-joy. It was as if the whole area had joined with Dragoon's sub-harmonic song and was rising in defiance of the dark.

And in the middle of the maelstrom, Ryuga stood frozen, face-to-face with the _other_ Dragon.

* * *

><p><em>So yeah... I know I promised this within two weeks. Stupid essays. That's also why this is so short (plus I was writing from Brooke's perspective for a change and it is REALLY hard). Next chapter will be longer, but I cannot make any promises about the arrival date as it's one of the most important chapters of them all.<em>


	23. Supernova

_Happy Christmas!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 23 – Supernova<strong>

_In which a battle is fought. _

The world stood still for several long seconds as the two dragons, blue and purple, glared at each other. Then, with a brilliant flash of light, they were joined by a huge white tiger and a bright-winged griffon. Driger and Apollon added their growls to the growing storm of noise, blocking the two dragons from reaching each other.

"That's enough, Ryuga," Garland said, trying to sound fierce but failing as his voice shook ever so slightly. Apollon's feathers ruffled in the dying winds, sending flickering streams of light scattering from them as he lowered his head to nudge at L-Drago, who snapped at him with one head whilst keeping the other two pairs of eyes fixed on Dragoon.

"Tyson," Ray warned. "You'll make it worse."

Tyson blinked and looked around at the slightly fearful faces of his companions. "Oh, okay," he shrugged, letting Dragoon dissipate into the air. "Sorry, guys, I didn't mean to scare you."

Madoka and Kenny had identical expressions of wide-eyed awe on their faces. "Wow," Madoka breathed. "Dragoon's so beautiful."

"Don't encourage him," Kai muttered. "Tyson's got a big enough head as it is." Tyson just grinned at him, knowing Kai well enough not to take the comment at face value.

Ryuga, on the other hand, had not forced L-Drago back, and the shadow-dragon was still coiling like smoke around his master. Apollon's blinding white wings were the only illumination that could be seen within the darkness around L-Drago, held arched over the bit-beast's head like a shield as the energy of the constellation swirled around him. Even though his blade was not deployed, L-Drago was still a monstrous opponent.

"Ryuga." The voice was Yuu's, much to everyone's surprise. "Don't do it."

The expression on Ryuga's face twisted to something very horrible. "I don't need you telling me what to do, little boy."

But despite his words, L-Drago was beginning to fade, settling back into Ryuga's mind like some great, coiling snake preparing to strike. Taking a deep, shuddering breath almost as if he had nearly lost control and was glad to be back in command again, Ryuga looked pointedly away from everyone. Garland exchanged a quick glance with both Hiro and Ray before quietly calling Apollon back to him.

"So?" Tyson asked, his voice perfectly friendly. "Do you want to see if me and Dragoon can challenge you?" Ryuga gave him a chilling glare, but Tyson was used to Kai and didn't back down. "It'll be fun!"

For a long moment, everyone could see that Ryuga was considering simply storming off – after all, he owed nothing to Tyson, and there didn't seem to be very much in it for him – but the thought of challenging the other dragon for mastery proved too much. "Fine," he spat. "You can have your battle, if you think you can beat me."

Tyson laughed. "I know I can beat you," he answered cheekily. "I'm World Champ!"

The rest of the G-Revolutions team rolled their eyes at this, but Ryuga was not amused in the slightest. "Then I suppose you can try."

It was Ray's turn to laugh now. "I think he outboasted you there, Tyson," he called. "Not bad, Ryuga, not bad at all."

Max looked over to Benkei. "Well, we should... should probably get on with it," he suggested. "If we wait until after Tyson and Ryuga have had a go at each other, there won't be a stadium left."

It quickly became apparent that in the mess and confusion that had surrounded the sudden confrontation between Dragoon and L-Drago, most people had forgotten that Max and Benkei also had a match to start. Ray and Garland hurriedly dropped back to their seats, and Yuu scampered over to join Kenta and Kenny on the side of the dish, leaning over Madoka's shoulder as she set her computer up to capture the battle between the defence-type and the balance-type.

Max and Benkei took up the proper positions on either side of the massive Revolution Stadium and waited for everyone to be ready before beginning. It didn't take too much longer, not once Tsubasa and Hiro got involved and managed to get Daichi to choose a seat and stay in it.

"Ready?" Tyson called. "Then three, two one..."

"Let it rip!" Max and Benkei answered, sending Dark Bull and Draciel Metal Shield careening across the stadium.

"Go, Dark Bull!" Benkei was the first to make a move. The red blade raced down the side of the dish towards Metal Shield, all its energy focused on a single, overwhelming attack. But to Benkei's utter shock, the green blade didn't even move an inch at the moment of impact, absorbing the rampaging power of the Bull like a sponge. Sparks flared for a moment, then fizzled out as Draciel pushed Dark Bull away from him.

"Benkei." Kyouya's voice was harsh as he glared at the taller boy. "Don't you dare let him win. I know these guys are older than us, and they've had more chance to practice, but they're beating us too often. Take him down."

"Got it!" Benkei's expression tightened. "If I want to get stronger, I mustn't look back! Never turn your back on an opponent!"

"Go on, Benkei!" Gingka cheered, pumping one fist in the air. "You got this!"

Benkei took a deep breath and sent Dark Bull back into the fray, this time not wasting all his energy on a single strike. Instead, he swung closer to Metal Shield before suddenly attacking from the side, trying to catch the defence blade by surprise.

It didn't work. Max was too cunning for such an obvious trick to fool him, and was already prepared. When Dark Bull's attack came, it met the solid defence of the Metal Shield once again. Max immediately answered the attack, pushing back at Dark Bull and clearly trying to force him out of the stadium, only for Benkei to re-engage and shove back himself. For what seemed like hours, the two blades pushed at each other, first one then the other gaining the middle of the dish. Horns locked against the strong arms of Draciel, Bull dug his back feet in and refused to budge, no matter how hard the other beast fought to throw him. Draciel answered like for like, setting himself like a wall that could not be toppled by anything.

It wasn't long before the stalemate became impossible to maintain. Max pulled away from the onslaught and pulled his blade back to about halfway up the side of the dish, where he hung patiently. Benkei took the bait, seeing Max much closer to the edge than earlier. One moment's miscalculation on the part of the G-Revolution blader and he, Benkei, could have the win! He had already powered Dark Bull up to charge across the dish when Max's voice rang out clearly.

"_Aqua Shield!_"

The wall of water that roared up was just as tall as it had been when Max had faced Yuu, with the shimmering figure of Draciel just visible through it. But even though he knew the strength of this phenomenal defence, Benkei wasn't giving up. Kyouya had told him to succeed, and succeed he would.

"Dark Bull, _Red Horn Upper-cut!_"

The red blade tilted one edge down and charged at the green blade as the Bull tore through the water as if it were nothing more than paper, and dug his horns under the body of Draciel. The Tortoise's shell was impenetrable, completely invulnerable to any attack – but with the force of a charging bull picking him up and throwing him high into the air from underneath, there was nothing he or his blader could do to counter it. Dark Bull's edge chipped under the bottom of Draciel's attack ring and lifted the blade off of the stadium floor, flinging him up and out of the dish!

There was a second of surprised silence as the two bladers tried to take in what had just happened, and then Max started laughing. "That was brilliant, Benkei!" he exclaimed. "I don't think anyone's flipped me out of the dish like that before! I can see why you got so far in Battle Bladers – you're really good!"

"So are you," Benkei offered. "I couldn't make a scratch on that defence of yours."

Hiro smiled to himself. Max certainly hadn't slacked off from practice, and his steel-wall defence was a wonder to behold. He had thought Benkei's chances of winning to be very slim, but the other blader had surprised him. After all, none of the blades that Hiro had ever seen had been capable of dipping as low as Dark Bull had gone to slide under the formidable defences of Draciel.

A tilt of the head was all that Kyouya offered in response to Benkei's glance, but that was enough for the face of the owner of Dark Bull to split into a huge grin. If Kyouya acknowledged the win, that was all that Benkei needed to know that the battle had been a worthy one.

"Ryuga?" Tyson called. "Let's go!"

Kenny's fingers were flying over the keyboard of his laptop as he quickly saved all of the data he had just collected so that he could study it later. Whilst Max and Benkei had given an awesome battle, the battle between the two left-rotating beys was sure to throw up some unexpected results at the very least. There was also a very good chance that such a battle would never be seen again, and both Kenny and Madoka were determined to extract as much information as possible from this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see two of the strongest bladers with such similar beys go head to head.

Ryuga moved slowly, getting to his feet with a dangerous, uncanny grace that was obviously meant to intimidate his rival. Kenta couldn't help but compare it to an uncoiling cobra rearing up out of the grass with its hood spread wide and fangs bared. After all this time, the battle with Reiji still broke into his thoughts like this at odd moments, a shadow crossing the sun and sending shivers up his spine. He could only hope that Tyson knew just how dangerous Ryuga could be.

"I'll be referee," Garland offered, but Tyson shook his head.

"Nah, it'll be fine," he said. "It's just a friendly battle."

Ryuga looked anything but friendly as he stood on the far side of the dish, his white coat flaring around his shoulders and making him seem much bigger than he really was. "Get a move on, will you, Granger?"

Tyson raised his eyebrows. "When'd he find out my last name?"

Garland merely shrugged. "Are you ready, Tyson, Ryuga?" Two nods. "Then on my mark – three, two, _one..."_

"LET IT RIP!"

Tyson couldn't deny it; Ryuga launched _very_ fast. Before Dragoon Metal Storm had even hit the other side of the stadium, Lightning L-Drago was already racing around the edge to pull off the first attack of the match. It connected with a loud _bang_ which startled most of the nearby birds out of their trees in a squawking, flapping mess. Brooklyn frowned.

"Careful," he scolded.

Of course, neither of the bladers actually listened to him. Tyson had regained his balance and was setting about making Ryuga regret that he'd tried to go for an early win. A series of heavy barrage attacks from Metal Storm pushed the heavier Lightning L-Drago towards the centre of the dish. For a defensive or stamina type bey, this was an excellent position to take up. However, for attack-types, it could spell certain defeat if the opponent knew how to use the dish properly.

Enough was enough. "L-Drago!" Ryuga ordered. "Break him apart!"

The triple dragon erupted from his blade with almost suspicious eagerness, pouncing on the tiny white bey that tried to dodge away but failed. Tyson's eyes hardened and he focused even harder on his blade. "Dragoon!" he called. "Now's your time!"

L-Drago was within inches of hitting Metal Storm when Dragoon burst out of the blade like an arrow from a string. The purple dragon was thrown backwards with the shock of Dragoon's arrival, rallying behind his master as his blade somehow managed to escape Dragoon's ongoing barrage. Lightning L-Drago sped up the side of the dish and began to race around it as Tyson hesitated in the centre, swinging Metal Storm around in small, lazy circles as he waited for Ryuga's next move. Should he chase or evade? Coming to a sudden decision, he sent Metal Storm racing after Lightning L-Drago.

That was exactly what Ryuga had been looking for. With a cruel smirk, he suddenly reversed the direction that his bey was running in and bore down on the helpless Dragoon. Nothing ever got out of this snare. It was his speciality, turning on the bey and letting their own momentum drive them into the jaws of the dragon.

But there was a shock in store for the owner of Lightning L-Drago. "Dodge him, Dragoon! That's it!"

Ryuga's eyes were wide as the white blade slid smoothly out of the trap in a way that no bey with normal rotation could ever do. _Could it be?_

"What's the matter, Ryuga?" Tyson called from his side of the dish, his smile just a little too wide and his eyes glittering too sharply to be innocent. "Did I surprise you?"

"Of course," Ryuga growled. "That phoenix boy said you had a bey with reverse rotation. I'd forgotten. But don't think that you can take me by surprise again."

Tyson shrugged, grinning. He was having a great time. Fighting a left-spinning bey wasn't something he got to do very often, and Ryuga was _very_ good with it. "Okay then, Ryuga," he challenged. "Try this – Dragoon, take him out! It's time to go full power - _Galaxy Turbo Twister!"_

"Not his most powerful attack," Kenny noted to Kenta. "He must still be testing Ryuga to see how far he can go."

Ryuga showed no such restraint. _"Dragon Emperor Soaring Destruction!"_

"Whoa!" Yuu shrieked. "Look out, Tyson!"

"I thought that was a Dark Move?" Tsubasa asked Madoka, who shrugged helplessly as the triplicate dragon rose in a tidal wave against Dragoon.

"He must have figured out how to use it normally..." she began, but a brilliant flash of light and sound obliterated anything else she might have tried to say as the Twister and the Destruction struck each other at exactly the same time.

In the heart of the explosion, both Ryuga and Tyson were thrown to the ground. Winded, neither of them could move for a long moment as their beys skittered against each other and sent sparks flying with every strike. Tyson was the first to blink the after-image of the explosion out of his eyes, but what he saw when his vision cleared was not at all what he had expected.

Ryuga scrambled to his feet, golden eyes wide in shock that only something of this magnitude could have forced him to show. Tyson was quick to imitate him, staring around at the impossible surroundings.

For the two of them were no longer standing by the Revolution Stadium, their feet planted firmly on the ground. Instead they stood facing each other across a vast plain lit by equally enormous plumes of blue and violet flame, somewhere where the sky was filled with falling stars. Metal Storm and Lightning L-Drago were pushing against each other in the middle of the field, sparks flying everywhere and the acrid smell of metal filling the otherwise scentless air.

"Wow," Tyson said, his voice filled with wonder. It didn't matter to him whether this was real or all just in his head – it was incredible nonetheless. "This is quite the battle."

"It's not over yet," Ryuga snapped, his attention back on his opponent. "Don't think for a minute that a pathetic attack like that can beat me."

"No, that wasn't what I meant," Tyson quickly explained. "I'm just... this is _really_ fun. It's been a really long time since I ended up somewhere like this in the middle of a battle."

Now Ryuga was confused. "You've been here before?"

Tyson shrugged as Metal Storm swirled back to spin between his feet. "It was somewhere like this place, anyway. I was fighting Kai for the Championship title. You must be even better than I thought you were – I'm really enjoying myself!" He grinned at Ryuga and held out a hand. "How about you?"

"I..." Ryuga began, and then stopped. Tyson could all but see the thoughts flashing through his eyes as they stood there on the plain of blue and purple flames that were whipped into wild shapes by the cosmic winds blasting through their battlefield. For a long, long time, the only sound was that of their two beys clashing against each other with a sound like huge metal gongs. Then, finally, Ryuga turned blazing-gold eyes on Tyson. "I don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about."

Tyson sighed. "Don't you get it? Blading isn't about smashing the other person to bits, or stealing their power. That isn't _fun. _Haven't you ever just tried blading just 'cause you like doing it?"

"Never," Ryuga sneered. "Blading is how I can become even stronger, and that's all. I only accepted your challenge because it'll give me a chance to do exactly that."

"You're worse than Kai and Brooklyn combined," Tyson groaned. "Come on, Ryuga! I _know_ Gingka's already told you all this during Battle Bladers. There's more to blading than power. It's..."

Then he hesitated and tried to think about the battle from Ryuga's point of view, just as he once had with Brooklyn.

How would he feel about blading if Dragoon was always demanding to be fed, like Black Dranzer had? Would he want to do it, or would he only do it because he had to?

Would he be able to enjoy blading as much as he did? No. That he knew for certain. But if Ryuga didn't _enjoy_ blading, then why did he keep doing it?

Unless... unless once, long ago, Ryuga _had_ loved blading, and had wanted to get stronger so that he could face better and better opponents just like Tyson and all of his friends had. But the darkness of L-Drago wouldn't have stood for Ryuga caring more about the strength of the opponent as a challenge to be faced than as a potential food source. Tyson's scant knowledge of Black Dranzer allowed him to know that much. But that answer left one more question in Tyson's mind, one so terrible that he could barely even think it.

"Ryuga?" he asked quietly. "Can't... can't you even _allow_ yourself to enjoy blading just for its own sake?"

The question hung between them, a great orb of darkness in the centre of the flaming field, masking all sight of the battle. Tyson wasn't really expecting an answer, so he was shocked when Ryuga's snarl rang out from the far side of the darkness.

"Why do you care?"

Tyson blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Why do you care if I'm... _enjoying_ myself? It's nothing to you."

That wasn't true. It was always something to Tyson. "It's not a good battle unless both sides are equal."

Ryuga's growl was even more threatening this time. "Why don't you just let me fight my way? I fight my way, you fight your way, then we're both happy. No-one tells me how to blade."

Tyson winced. "I'm not trying to... oh forget it. There's only one thing that'll make you understand now. Dragoon, attack!"

For Tyson, blading was a universal language, one he happened to be very fluent in. So if he could just use that to show Ryuga how much fun blading could be when it was at its best... surely then the owner of the other dragon bey would understand what he meant?

But for Ryuga it was a different case altogether. For as long as he could remember, and certainly for as long as he had owned L-Drago, blading had been a means to an end. There was nothing remotely enjoyable about it, and that was the way he liked it. Passion meant nothing to him. That silly idea of "blader's spirit" that Gingka kept going on about meant nothing either. He didn't _care_. That was for fools like Gingka and Kyouya who had no idea of the true power lurking in the depths of their beys.

No, that wasn't quite true. Right down deep, only reached by the combined light of the blue and purple flames, Ryuga knew it was more complex than that. He couldn't _afford_ to care about blading, for the simple reason that L-Drago tended to take the things that he cared about even the tiniest bit and twist them to breaking point.

But there was no way that he was ever going to allow himself to reveal that to any of his opponents, least of all this stubborn upstart who had flung this pathetic challenge in his face. Now it was time to teach him a lesson that he would never forget.

"L-Drago!"

Both dragons rose together, coils of blue and purple smoke flowing through the universe. Teeth and claws flared brilliantly in the relentless flames as the beasts charged at each other, their collision shaking every fibre of Ryuga's body. Concussive waves of sound tumbled through his head.

"L-Drago, _Dragon Emperor Soaring Bite Strike!"_

It had taken him ten days to persuade L-Drago to use this move again after the fiasco against Brooklyn, and so Ryuga was more than a little relieved to see that his dragon was still obeying him. The three twisting tornadoes of L-Drago wrapped around Dragoon, all but immobilising him. Only the great blue tail was left free to thrash wildly as L-Drago opened his gaping jaws and poured a torrent of dark fire down on his opponent.

"No! Dragoon! Fight back – don't let him get you!"

One second too late Ryuga saw his danger. Dragoon's long tail whipped up with terrifying speed and lashed at the eyes of the part of L-Drago holding down his legs. The purple dragon let go with a roar that was almost a shriek, voice sailing up out of the audible range and Dragoon sprang free. Now the beasts were fighting in earnest, biting and snarling as, far below, their blades met again and again on the sides of the dish.

Ryuga curled his lip in a silent snarl. No, this wasn't enough. He was holding Dragoon off, yes, but that was it. He needed even more power than he was currently using if he was going to beat someone like Tyson.

He reached out to his constellation, offering all of his strength and energy to the beast he commanded, no longer caring about the risk of L-Drago becoming hostile again. All he wanted was to win, no matter the cost. He _couldn't_ let another left-rotating bey beat him!

But then something truly unexpected happened. Instead of feeling his own power draining away into his blade, Ryuga felt it flowing _back_ into him, filling him up to the brim and then overflowing with everything that L-Drago had left.

The dragon poured through the connection between Ryuga and his blade, flooding every inch of Ryuga's mind with his strength and savagery. But there was no sense of a battle for control. This time, at least, L-Drago was not looking to swallow up his master. Instead, he was...

"L-Drago?" Ryuga whispered, suddenly uncertain of his constellation's intentions. This was not the desire to win that he could sense running between them. It was deeper than that, filled with a... a _joy_ so great and terrible that it was almost painful, an ancient, savage, instinctive joy. Ryuga had never felt anything like it before.

_Now we shall be,_ L-Drago exalted as his consciousness sank deep into Ryuga's own. _Now it is we._

He couldn't understand. The words floated on the endless sea of stars that he stood before, muddled and strange.

_Not you. Not me. Us. We._

_We are one._

That was the moment where Ryuga understood. This was the reason why they called him the Dragon Emperor. He would always blade solo, but he could _never_ blade alone.

L-Drago was with him, in him, through him... _was him._

The sky went black. Not the blackness of rainclouds that gather before a storm. Not even the blackness of night. This was the blackness of the furthest reaches of space, beyond stars and galaxies, beyond all human knowledge or understanding. This was where the constellations had lived and fought for millennia. This was where the bit-beasts were born.

This was where it didn't matter whether your blade was built for Kenny's Heavy Metal System or for Koma Village's Star Fragment beys. All were the same here. All that mattered was the strength of the bond between blader and beast, and the love of the game.

Dragoon reared up into the darkness, claws reflecting only the glittering purple of L-Drago's scales. Opening his mouth to roar his power out across the universe, he sprang at the other dragon, pinning the beast beneath him. L-Drago answered by twisting one of his bodies away to the left just in time to dodge Dragoon's vicious swipe, and then coiling around the blue dragon to bite down on the back of his neck. Dragoon howled and clawed at his attacker, dragging the snapping head away from the vulnerable joint at the top of his spine and forcing it down, releasing the other two parts of the purple dragon as he did.

The dragons circled once more, teeth bared in snarls that shook their way through the universe and called to some primal instinct deep inside every blader's heart. Driger and Leone threw back their heads and roared as one with Strata Dragoon and Poseidon, filling the skies with noise in answer to the unearthly call. Pegasus flung up his head in some wild thrill of joy and sent his own shrill whinny out to the stars, twining his voice around the bellow of Dark Bull and Draciel, and the thunder of Sagittario's hooves as he raced alongside Apollon and Zeus. From a spark that burst into brilliant flame, Dranzer sprang upwards into the darkness, trailing feathers of fire as he sang a high, sweet counterpoint to the indescribable song of Libra and the cry of Eagle.

It wasn't as if they were all rising in support of one dragon or the other, not as the bit-beasts had in that battle long ago between Tyson and Brooklyn. It was nothing less than a symphony of absolute joy in blading; something that, despite all their differences in blades, personalities, friendships and ages, they all shared and would continue to share right up until the very end.

"_Go Evolution Storm!" _

It wasn't a fight any more, not to those who stood on the outside and watched in growing wonder as the two dragons swirled around each other like the great currents of the oceans. It was a dance, the same steady, stately, occasionally deadly dance that the stars moved in as they crossed the sky, a dance that might take a thousand years for a single step. Talons caught in those of the other, Dragoon and L-Drago rolled across the galaxies in an endless waltz of primal savagery and uncanny beauty.

"_Dragon Emperor Soaring Destruction!"_

The earth shuddered as the two blades slammed back into it, and the dust cloud that blossomed up like a strange, swiftly-forming weed hid everything from sight. Tyson's fists were clenched at his sides, eyes locked with Ryuga's. A single moment of time froze around them, crystallising the outcome for all eternity, imprinting it into both of their minds. It didn't matter that the dish was obscured by dust and darkness. Both of them knew at once that one of the blades had stopped – and _which_ one.

As the dust settled back into the dish, there was a collective gasp from the onlookers. Every eye was trained on the two blades, one spinning drunkenly, the other lying perfectly still in the sand, its edge shattered into tiny fragments. The dragon in its centre glared up at the gradually brightening sky from its single visible eye as its opponent stuttered to a weary halt barely three inches away from it just a few seconds later.

"L-Drago _lost?_" Tsubasa breathed, as if doubting the evidence of his eyes.

"Tyson _won?_" Gingka echoed, the same surprise in his voice. "That's... that was incredible! I've never seen a battle like it, and I've seen some crazy battles since I came here!"

Neither Tyson nor Ryuga seemed to be able to hear them. They were still staring at the stadium floor where their beloved beys lay, finally at rest. After a long moment of stillness, Tyson blew out a long breath and laughed.

"Wow," he said, shoulders still rising and falling rapidly as he caught his breath. "I've never fought anyone like you before. That was... that was something else."

Ryuga didn't make any answer at all, but slid quietly down into the dish to kneel beside L-Drago's battered blade and scoop the damaged fragments up into his hands. With only a single glance at Tyson, he straightened up and jumped lightly out of the dish, landing almost as silently as Kai could on the far side.

Tyson was the only one who would ever know exactly what Ryuga meant by that look, because he was the only one who saw it. Whilst part of it was a grudging respect for the young man who had beaten him, no matter how closely, there was a much deeper part to it that was meant for Tyson alone to understand. Words could not describe it, let alone explain it, and Tyson knew right then that he was never going to try.

As the G-Revolutions and Gingka's group of friends gathered around Tyson to congratulate him, only one person noticed at first that Ryuga was slipping away from them, one hand still tight around the half-destroyed blade he was carrying. Brooklyn merely smiled and closed his book before getting to his feet and following the white-haired blader - after all, Ryuga was the one who made the most sense in Brooklyn's head, and it would be a shame to lose him.

In the end, it was Garland noticing that Brooklyn was gone that alerted the other bladers to the fact that Tyson's opponent had vanished, just in time for them to look around and see him right at the bottom of the hill, Brooklyn trailing him at a distance. His pace was steady and unhurried, neither the satisfied stalk of the victor nor the miserable limp of the loser. Ryuga had a task now, one that he was set on above all other things, and he would complete that task if it killed him.

The last that the G-Revolutions would ever see of Ryuga was the flare of his white coat as he vanished in between the trees.

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><p><em>AN: There will be no updates on this story or any other (apart from two already-completed one-shots) until after 14th January 2013, due to exams and three long essays due on that date. Expect lots of updates soon after that, though, because I then have two weeks with nothing to do except write..._

_Thank you for your patience with me, and I wish you all a very happy and peaceful 2013._


	24. The Beginning of the End

_Congratulations to Luxraylover, who wrote the 100th review of this story! Thank you so much, you guys!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 24 – The Beginning of the End<strong>

_In which an announcement is made_

Four pairs of eyes, one blue, one purple and two gold, glared at each other through a haze of dust and heat. Two felines prowled restlessly beneath the wings of their avian opponents, waiting only for their masters' command to go springing upwards in a fountain of flashing, silver-clawed savagery.

No-one was quite sure how it had happened. It had been a fairly ordinary day so far, with everyone meeting up at the dojo through the course of the morning, before realising that no-one had any inclination to do much. Tyson was stretched out on the veranda, snoring. Madoka was sitting by the pond, humming to herself as she watched the fish dart in between the weeds. Yuu was teaching Daichi and Kenny how to play Go whilst Kenta kept score. Hilary was training with the G-Revolutions' usual tin cans, improving her accuracy with a slalom course and making sure that her launches were fairly weak so that Tyson didn't carry out his threat of getting the hard-hats out again. Max was playing catch with Benkei and Gingka, trying to score points by hitting Tyson without waking him up. It was all very peaceful.

And then all of a sudden, a tag-team battle had erupted between what was, effectively, Team Cat and Team Bird.

Kyouya and Ray stood side by side, hair waving like green and black flags in the roaring winds that sprang from Kyouya's blade. Lightning danced up the sides of the tornado, indicating where Driger Metal Slash was hovering within the walls, using the winds in order to gain power for a devastating attack on the Eagle and the Phoenix who stood against them.

"Driger, _Gatling Claw_!"

It might not have been Ray's strongest attack, but it was enough to break free of the tornado that Kyouya had created for his use. Driger bounded up towards the purple-winged bird, leaving Leone to switch the focus of his tornado onto Dranzer, and push the fire-bird far away from his partner. Below in the dish, Metal Slash leap-frogged over Leone at high speed, wearing electricity like a coat. Even agile Eagle could not match the Tiger for speed.

But unfortunately for Ray, Tsubasa was ready for him. "Go Eagle! _Counter-Stance_!"

Driger Metal Slash smashed into Eagle with all the power of a hunting tiger, but Tsubasa's timing had been perfect. The purple blade didn't give an inch, the eagle forcing back the tiger with its huge wings. Snarling and snapping, Driger jumped backwards, his blade disengaging and rejoining its partner in circling the dish.

"Tsubasa." The command was quiet, but the Eagle blader still heard it over the howling of the tornado. "Do it."

"But Kai..." Tsubasa's golden eyes widened in alarm. "We haven't... can we even manage it?"

Kai's expression did not change. "Do it."

Tyson, who after five years was at least semi-fluent in Kai-speak, froze. He had never heard Kai give such a clear indication of trust before. This was going to be _spectacular._ Tsubasa, equally fluent, nodded once.

"Eagle!"

"Dranzer."

"_Four-Winged Flame."_

The words were spoken together, in the sort of perfect synchronisation that only hour after hour of tag-team training could give. Tyson sighed with envy.

Wing-tip to wing-tip, the fiery Dranzer and the smoke-filled Eagle rose as one towards the sun. Higher than the roof they soared, higher than the trees, higher than the top of the tornado. Dranzer's flames forced an updraught beneath Eagle's wings, pulling both of them up to the heavens. For an instant at the pinnacle of their climb, the two beasts hung in the air, wings equally wide, marking out their tiny prey on the ground with Eagle's phenomenal vision.

Then they fell.

"Go Leone!" Kyouya roared as the eagle and the phoenix plummeted towards them like a hail of fire. "Keep them back! _Lion Gale Force Wall_!"

"Driger, _Thunder Slash_!"

The wind picked up again, whipping around Leone and Driger, sheltering them as it tried to force the two beasts above from their path, even by a millimetre. It seemed to be working as Driger gathered himself into a ball of whirling fur and lightning, ready for attack - but was it enough?

The collision of the four blades shook the very ground they battled on, and a flowerpot on the patio toppled off to smash on the floor. Billowing clouds of dust obscured everything as a brilliant light began to grow in the centre of the dish. Red, purple and green flashed against each other, striving for dominance as the light grew larger and larger. From the depths of the light, four massive wings of fire and brilliance arose, one from each of the points of the compass. Arcing high over the battle, they stretched up until the tips of their outermost pinions feathers brushed against each other. As they did, the light grew to unbearable levels, forcing everyone to throw their arms up in front of their eyes to protect them. With a flash that was visible even through such shields, Driger and Leone were sent flying high into the air by the enormous wings of their avian opponents.

"Driger! No, hold on!"

"Don't give in, Leone!"

By some miracle of the wind still left from the tornado, the air currents shifted just enough to allow Metal Slash and Leone to land within the dish as the light died, though they were wobbling perilously. Ray let out a breath of thanks and grinned at his tag-team partner, who was hiding his own look of relief. "Alright! Is that all you've got?" he called across to Kai, who looked almost disappointed.

"The real battle starts here!" Kyouya added, a taunting gleam back in his eyes. "Ray, let's show them everything we've got."

"You're on!"

Driger and Leone moved in sync, sweeping around the top edge of the dish and then racing down towards the centre to regain their lost speed on the slope. It was here that the adjustments Kenny had made to Leone all that time ago began to come into their own, steadying the blade and allowing it to pick up speed much faster than it had been able to before. Kai's eyes widened.

"Dranzer, get out of there! Tsubasa, go left!"

Eagle moved to the right at the very last second, escaping the claws of a vengeful Leone by a hair's-breadth. But Driger was faster than even he had accounted for, and as the purple constellation wheeled out of the Lion's grasp, the White Tiger pounced on his back, pinning his wings down. Tsubasa yelled in shock and pain, concentration slipping by the second as images of the last time his beautiful eagle had been trapped like this flashed across his mind. Shaking his head to get rid of them, he looked back at the dish just in time to see Leone crashing down the slope towards him, pinning Eagle to the side in a pincer with Metal Slash. "Kai!"

The very air seemed to scream with Eagle as Driger and Leone tore into his defence from both sides. Feathers were flying everywhere under the double-attack, though it was clear that Eagle was still standing up for himself as Driger let out a surprised yelp. Leone snarled and snapped at the huge bird, trying to keep both his wings down, as every time he managed to get one free Eagle would buffet one of the big cats across the chest, throwing them back.

"Dranzer, attack!"

A fireball tore through the three-way brawl, separating the opponents. Eagle, reeling from the ferocious barrage it had been subjected to, slipped out of the trap and back towards the safety of the centre where the blue Metal Spark awaited him.

"I won't bail you out again," Kai warned as Eagle swung into Dranzer's slip-stream, regaining its balance slowly but steadily. "You used far too much power on that Counter-Stance earlier. Besides, I thought I told you to go left."

To the surprise of Gingka and his friends, Tsubasa actually looked ashamed. "Sorry, Kai. It won't happen again."

Kai ignored him. "Let's just finish this, shall we?"

Tsubasa nodded once, now recovered enough to let Eagle move up alongside Dranzer. Driger and Leone also moved together, clearly not wanting to end up with an avenging Eagle and Dranzer giving one of them the same pincer treatment that they had just given to the constellation.

"Tala!" It was Kenny who had spoken as his computer bleeped, indicating an incoming video call. The suddenness of his cry dragged all eyes towards him as none other than Tala himself appeared on the small screen, hair just as fiery as ever.

Taking advantage of their collective distraction, Kai pushed Dranzer into an attacking sprint and flipped both of his opponents out of the dish at once, before nudging Eagle into a stadium-out as well. "Pay attention, Tsubasa," he scolded.

Ray, Kyouya and Tsubasa wore identical expressions of confusion and shock as their blades landed at their feet. "Oops," Ray laughed after a second, picking Metal Slash up and dusting it off. "Hey, Tala. You look... smart."

Tala was not in his usual clothes. In fact, none of them save Kai had ever seen him wear anything like his current outfit - a dark blue three-piece suit with the WBBA's logo stitched over the pocket – before. He did, as Ray had so astutely pointed out, look extremely smart as he glared out of the screen at them.

"I'm not meant to be the one doing this," he informed them icily. "But apparently our usual publicity announcer has decided to spend the day commentating on some kind of down-town tournament thirty miles away from HQ. I'll strangle him with his own headscarf when I next see him, I swear."

"Go on," Tyson urged him. "What's the news?"

Tala lifted his chin proudly. "The WBBA has announced its new Director," he said. "And he's set the date for the preliminary rounds of the World Championships."

"Awesome!" Yuu cheered as he scrambled over to the laptop. "Who is it?"

"I bet it's Garland," Max laughed. "He's already really involved in the WBBA, and he's the captain of the Justice Five. He'd be perfect."

"Nah," Ray shook his head. "If it's anyone, it should be Tsubasa. He's actually an agent for them – it's not much of a leap... though he might be a bit young."

Tsubasa laughed. "It's not me," he promised. "I'd have told you if it was."

"What about Kai?" Kyouya suggested, and it was clear he was not joking. "Tsubasa might have said something, but Kai wouldn't." The blader in question just scowled at him.

"Ooh, I know!" Kenta chipped in. "That Mr Dickenson guy! He was really nice. I'd like to be like him when I'm that old – it's so cool that he still loves blading that much."

"None of them," Tala interrupted before anyone could add another idea. "The new Director of the WBBA is Ryo Hagane."

It was a wide-eyed Gingka who broke the long silence that followed that announcement.

"B-but that's my dad!"

"Really?" Tala asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "I'd never have guessed. He even has the same name as you."

"Tala," Kai warned, and the red-head snapped his eyes back to those of his erstwhile team-mate.

"Fine then," he said. "The preliminary rounds for the World Championships are due to start in four months' time. No decisions have been made yet as to exactly what the format will be, but the preliminary rounds are open to anyone with a blade and the will to try." He frowned. "Well, that's all it says on my script. Oh, and Kai? I think some of the sponsors have been trying to get hold of you. Could you _please_ answer your phone?" And, as Kai growled something about inconvenient nuisances, Tala ended the call and vanished.

For a long time, no-one moved. Then Kenta let out a slow whistle. "Your dad's going to be Director, Gingka?"

"Sounds like it..."

"That's awesome!" Yuu broke in, all smiles and shining green eyes. "Your dad's so cool!"

Tyson grinned at him. "My dad used to work with the BBA a few years ago," he said. "It was great, getting to see him at all my matches."

"Yeah..." Gingka sighed, his eyes suddenly going dark. "That'd be fun."

One look at his face told Tyson what he had forgotten. "Oh yeah... you still don't have your blade back yet. But now your dad's head of the WBBA, I bet he'll able to use all their resources to find your Pegasus again."

Gingka perked up a bit. "And he'll be able to tell me if you guys are working in the stadiums nearby," he said. "You are going to be working in them, right?"

"Of course!" Ray exclaimed. "We've all said we're working for the WBBA, and they'll need all the experienced help they can get for their first World Championships. Yeah, we might have been on the other end of it last time, but we know how these things work. And Kai said something about Hiwatari Enterprises being one of the sponsors, so he'll be in on that side of it too, won't you, Kai?"

But when they turned around, both Kai and Tsubasa were missing.

"Typical," Tyson sighed. "Oh well. Who's for some pizza?"

.

It was a couple of hours before the two silver-haired bladers returned, Kai still muttering something about Europeans having no sense of when it was suitable to call him. Everyone had scattered into their various groups around the garden, whilst Daichi and Kenta battled away in the dish Yuu had made so many weeks ago. Tsubasa perched himself on the edge of the veranda, leaning back against the warm wooden pillar that supported the roof. It was so peaceful here that part of him would have been quite happy to stay there forever, with the warm sun coaxing the flowers around the garden to full bloom, their scents filling the air.

"Hey," said a voice from right next to him, and Tsubasa looked around to see Yuu standing there, an ice-cream cone in either hand. "Can I come talk to you? Everyone else is being boring and stinky."

Tsubasa shrugged and swung round to give Yuu some room. "Are Kenny and Madoka still going on about L-Drago and Dragoon over there?" he asked, taking the ice-cream Yuu was offering him.

"Yeah," Yuu grinned, scrambling up next to him. "Talking about ram-bot-bit-bites or something. Oh, and what's Code X? They keep mentioning it."

"No idea." Tsubasa shook his head. "At least they're enjoying themselves. It's been fun to stay here for a while, hasn't it?"

Yuu settled onto the veranda and took a large bite of his ice-cream. "Iffts een eeree un." Tsubasa rolled his eyes and waited for his young friend to swallow his mouthful. "It's been really fun. I don't wanna go home."

"But just think," Tsubasa pointed out. "By now they'll have finished rebuilding the Metal Stadium, so we can battle each other whenever we want – and without worrying about getting dust in our beyblades!"

"I s'pose," Yuu mumbled. "But Daichi and Max and Tyson won't be there. I wish they could come back with us; I want to show them Bey Park!"

"I'm sure we'll meet up again," Tsubasa assured him, looking over to where Tyson and Ray were poring over the newest parts that had arrived via Max's dad's shop, occasionally calling out to Madoka to ask her where everything went, and comparing them out loud to the older style of blade as well as to Kyouya's hybrid blade. How could they even think of not seeing each other again when their blades were so intertwined now, with spare parts being freely lent across the two systems? How could they think it when Tyson and his friends had been so unswervingly generous, even lending Gingka a blade temporarily so that he could keep battling, before he'd decided to stick to the absent Pegasus?

Yuu swung his feet. "We've got their phone numbers, haven't we?"

"Yes," Tsubasa smiled. "And we can always write letters. Maybe next summer we can invite them back to make it even. But we've got the World Championships to get through first."

"What're you talking about?" Max asked, dropping down to sit cross-legged in front of them. "Did I hear you say World Championships?"

"The WBBA is strong enough now to handle organising a big competition, so it's going to be fantastic," Tsubasa explained. "We've got all the infrastructure from Battle Bladers to work with here in Japan, but it's gone so far beyond that. I can't wait to see what the stadiums look like in other places."

"And we'll get to fight people from all over the world!" Yuu added. "I bet they'll all be really strong."

"Just make sure you win, then," Max grinned. "By the way, when are you going home again?"

"Thursday next week," Tsubasa and Yuu chorused, then looked at each other and burst out giggling. Max just shook his head at their antics.

"Sorry," Tsubasa managed after a moment or two. "It's just that everyone's been asking us that lately. It's as if you want to get rid of us."

"Not at all," Max protested. "We just want to know how much time we've got left to have fun."

Gingka wandered over to join them just then, followed by a smiling Ray who had apparently abandoned Tyson.

"Has anyone heard from Kyouya recently?" Ray asked. "We want to have a closer look at his blade, but Kenny's talking in rapid Technobabble with Madoka, so we can't ask them for the specs."

"Um... I think he went off with Benkei and Hilary to go shopping," Yuu said, taking another bite of ice-cream. "She wanted a new launcher and Kyouya wanted to see what other parts there were that could customise Leone, so Benkei went too to explain them."

"Shopping with Hilary?" Max queried. "Brave man."

"You G-Revolutions do take the mickey out of Hilary a lot, don't you?" Gingka said, frowning a bit. "Why?"

"We don't do it a lot," Ray defended Max, "And actually we tease each other about as much anyway. She doesn't mind – or at least, when she does she lets us know."

Max shuddered. "Oh boy does she let us know. And besides, going shopping with Hilary really does require some bravery, or a healthy dose of insanity. She's very, very exacting about what she does and does not want, and if you get it wrong she'll be very vocal about it. Often it's more embarrassing being out shopping with an angry Hilary who you've just given the wrong item to than it is to turn up at a blading match without your blade."

Yuu looked rather more curious than perhaps he should have. "Have you ever actually done that?"

"No, thank goodness!" Ray laughed, and all of them paused for a moment to consider what it would be like to turn up at a big battle only to discover that you had forgotten your blade. Gingka shivered.

"That would be hor-"

_**BANG!**_

There were several shrieks from around the garden, but the loudest had come from the corner of the veranda where Kenny and Madoka were sitting, leaning away from Kenny's now-smoking laptop.

"Oh no!" gasped Ray.

But a strange, metallic voice took over before he could continue.

"Chief! You deleted all my Solitaire scores!"


	25. Good Things

_I love how so many of the reviews I got on the last chapter said the same thing – effectively, the first line of **this** chapter._

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><p><strong>Chapter 25 – Good Things<strong>

_In which there are smiles and tears_

"DIZZI!" Kenny cried. "Dizzi, you're back!"

"I never went away," Dizzi replied primly. "Now, apologise. I spent two whole years building up that score!"

"You WHAT?"

"You heard me, Chief. Two years of work!"

"Dizzi, I've been so... you've... I... I _missed_ you!"

By now there was a crowd of people surrounding the little computer. "Is that Kenny's bit-beast?" Kenta asked, his eyes shining. "I didn't know they could _talk."_

"Most can't, not to humans anyway," Kai said, leaning in. "Dizzi, where have you been? Why didn't you contact us?"

"Oh!" said Dizzi, sounding delighted. "The sourpuss talks!" Kai's expression hardened and he reached towards the power button threateningly, and she quickly back-tracked. "But still has no sense of humour. Oh well. Some things never change."

"I'm serious, Dizzi," Kenny broke in. "You've got to tell me where you've been all this time. I've been looking for you ever since, and I really could have used your help with some things..."

"Where do you think I was?" Dizzi asked. "Playing Solitaire, of course. Oh, and Minesweeper – I've got really good at that. Besides, you didn't really need me. You're a smart young man – look at what you did with the Heavy Metal blades! They're gorgeous!"

Gingka's expression was switching rapidly between confusion and excitement. "You have a bit-beast that _talks,"_ he echoed Kenta.

"I remember we used to have a problem getting her to shut up," Kai muttered. An outraged squawk from the computer speakers told everyone what Dizzi thought of that statement.

Kenny sighed. "Yes, Dizzi talks, and yes, she's trapped in the computer. I can't get her out, no matter how hard I try."

"Dizzi, how on earth did you get back here?" Max asked, leaning in. "You've been gone for so long that we thought you'd never come back."

"Oh, that's easy," Dizzi answered. "You can probably guess if you think hard enough."

Max hesitated for a long while, but then shook his head. "You'll have to tell me."

If Dizzi had visible eyes, she probably would have been rolling them. "Don't say you've already forgotten about the stuff that happened a couple of days ago? That battle that Ryuga and Tyson had?"

There was a sudden intake of breath from all around. "You mean... when the bit-beasts rose together?" Ray asked.

"And the constellations with them?" Kyouya added.

"Exactly," Dizzi answered. "The bit-beasts and the constellations combined to create something this world has never seen before, a power that is... well, Tyson would probably call it pure Blader's Spirit. Kenny opened the file for the battle and tried to analyse the power output in that moment, and that was enough. The actual uprising was enough to wake me and call me back, but it was just that little bit of extra energy that I needed to get all the way back here. It could only have happened with a group who respect and honour each other enough to show the others the true depths of their spirit – and just bit-beasts or just constellations wouldn't have been enough. It had to be both, and let me tell you, there has never been a group that knew and trusted the other people enough to do that before, not ever. You've begun something new, boys."

The G-Revolutions exchanged glances. "Would that work with any of the other beasts?" Tyson asked, his voice tight. "Binding them together with the rest of them? It'd take a massive battle, but I'd be happy to do it if it meant..."

"Meant what?" Dizzi asked. So Kenny took it upon himself to explain the situation with the bit-beasts and their owners' nineteenth birthdays.

"I just wish that we'd known earlier," he said sadly. "I could have done loads of research on it and maybe found a way to keep them. But it doesn't look too hopeful now – Tala's already lost Wolborg, and the other older ones are losing them fast too – Garland's next, isn't he, Kai?" At Kai's nod he looked back down at Dizzi. "Why hadn't we heard anything about it before? It wasn't in any of my research."

Dizzi actually laughed. "Oh dear," she sighed. "You really have got yourselves in a mess, haven't you?"

"Dizzi!" Kenny sounded scandalised. "If this is true, then Kai's only got another month with Dranzer! I... I can't imagine what it'll be like to lose a bit-beast like that, even though I thought that I'd lost _you. _Can't you do anything to help us?"

The silence that followed was the worst that any of the G-Revolutions had ever heard. Then, in a quiet voice, Dizzi said "No. I can't do anything to help you get your bit-beasts back."

Tsubasa, who had been watching Kai very closely, was the only one who saw the flash of pain cross his face. The return of Dizzi had given him a moment's hope that his heart-of-hearts might still be able to stay, but now that hope had just resulted in more pain. Tsubasa had known for a long time that there was only one thing that his mentor truly loved in the whole of the world, and that was Dranzer – without the fire-bird, Tsubasa couldn't even begin to describe Kai. Inside his mind, Eagle ruffled his feathers and settled down with his head beneath one wing, comforting, comfortable. What on earth could it feel like, having that ripped away from you? What kind of heart could even survive losing the better half of yourself without being irreparably damaged?

Ray was more obvious in his grief, his hand drifting to the holder that Driger Metal Slash resided in as he took a deep breath in order to get himself under control, blinking fiercely as the reality of the situation crashed around him. No-one said anything; no-one could even move.

"Maybe I should be clearer," Dizzi spoke into the stillness. "_I_ can't do anything... but _you_ can."

It was at that moment that Tsubasa was glad he had not taken his eyes off of Kai. It was beyond rare to see the older Phoenix blader showing any form of deep emotion, but the light of joy that flamed into Kai's eyes was unmistakable.

"When you were children, they were your best friends and best protectors," Dizzi explained. "They chose you because you were right for them. When you turn nineteen, you don't need protecting in that sort of way any more. But that doesn't mean that they'll stop being your friends. They have to leave, because of the way they work, protecting you until you are old enough to stand beside them, as their friends, not their masters. Just reach out to them – they won't leave you completely unless they are forced to. Tell them that you've made your choice, ask them to come back, and they will."

"You're serious, Dizzi?" Kai asked, getting there just as Ray opened his mouth. "That's... it's that easy?"

"It takes a bit of effort on your part to call them back from where they'll disappear to, but yes. It's really that easy, Kai."

Gingka had the strange, uncomfortable feeling that he was intruding on some terribly private moment of joy, and took a step back to where Tsubasa and Kyouya stood watching the G-Revolution bladers cluster around the small silver laptop. Knowing what he was thinking, Tsubasa put one hand on his shoulder.

"Dragoon?" Tyson breathed, and the blue dragon hummed happily in his ear. "You're not leaving me? Because I really, really want you to stay, friend." The answering trill was loud enough and joyous enough to be audible, and Max laughed.

"Draciel agrees," he said.

"So does Driger," Ray laughed in relief. "Though that might get tricky when he needs to be passed on to the next bearer..."

"Worry about that when the time comes," Kai interrupted, his hand clasped very tightly around Dranzer Metal Spark. "Just be grateful that we've got them... that they're staying."

Tsubasa was still watching him, taking in the unusual and rather extraordinary spectacle of his mentor allowing himself to show his true emotions. There was a haunted look in Kai's eyes, as if he'd been drowning and pulled to safety at the last minute, but still wasn't certain he was free from the water that had tried to claim him. His fingers clenched and loosened around his bey - looking at him, Tsubasa wasn't certain Kai actually knew what he was doing.

Tyson was the first one to see past his own joy. "Wait, what about Tala and the others? The ones who have already lost theirs?"

Dizzi hummed happily. "They can do it too. I think I heard Tala say something about him being able to hear Wolborg still, so he must have done it but not quite got it right. If he just calls Wolborg properly, it'll be absolutely fine."

"We should call him, then, and all the others who might have lost their beasts," Max said, his expression serious. "Dizzi, can you scan to find out which beasts have already gone?"

"Of course!" the bit-beast chirruped. "Though it would be easier to just group the bladers by their ages..."

There was a momentary pause, and then the bit-beast's voice crackled back into life. "Let's see now... the bit-beasts who currently have no master are Gigars, Wolborg, Bison, Galzzy, Trihorn, Seaborg, Vortex Ape and Rapid Eagle."

"What's a Rapid Eagle when it's at home?" Tsubasa asked the world in general. He got no answer. Then again, he wasn't really expecting one, not right now.

"So that's Crusher, Tala, Rick, Gary, Steve, Spencer, Dunga and Claude," Ray said, leaning in to read the list and ticking them off on his fingers. "Maxie's right, we should call them and tell them."

"I'll get onto it," Max volunteered.

Tyson's expression tightened. "What must it have been like?" he breathed. "None of them said anything... do you think they thought that they'd done something wrong to make their beasts leave them?"

"Who knows?" Kai answered. "Wait a minute, Dizzi – what about Griffolyon?"

The computer hummed softly as Dizzi scanned the lists again. "He's with Robert," she said at last. "All of the Majestics have theirs."

Kai frowned. "That doesn't make sense," he muttered. "Robert's a year older than me at least, and I thought Johnny was older too."

"Maybe they just haven't reported it?" Max suggested, but Dizzi disagreed.

"I'm not looking at the databases," she informed him. "I'm linking up to the bit-beasts themselves and asking who they're with. Griffolyon is definitely still with Robert."

Tyson's eyes went wide. "Wait, you don't think he... no, that's impossible. He _is_ older than nineteen, isn't he?"

"He's nearly twenty-one," Dizzi reported. "And Johnny's nineteenth birthday was three days ago, but he's still got Salamalyon."

"I hate mysteries," Kai suddenly interrupted, much to everyone's surprise. "Especially when it concerns him. Find out what happened."

"Yes," Kenny added. "And can you find out why we didn't hear anything about this earlier?"

The laptop's internal fan whirred as Dizzi worked away, silently communicating with the other bit-beasts. "Got it!" she exclaimed suddenly. "The answers are actually tied together!"

"What? How?" The questions came from Ray, Max and Tyson simultaneously.

"Okay, I'll start with Robert," Dizzi said. "You know that his family has had Griffolyon for centuries, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, that's just it. They already knew that the beasts would try to leave at nineteen, so they stopped them somehow."

"But why didn't Robert tell us that it happened?" Max asked, sounding a bit hurt.

Dizzi's voice was filled with smiles. "That's another easy one," she said. "He assumed that it was just the bit-beasts of his family and those of the other Majestics. You remember how they used to treat them? Would it be such a jump to think that the bit-beasts would get into the habit of leaving?"

Tyson wrinkled his nose. "Eh, guess not. Maybe they thought it was some kind of contract between the blader and the beast that was finished after nineteen years or something."

"Almost certainly," Dizzi responded after a few seconds. "I've checked the databases back as far as they go, and it seems that there's always been a male heir ready to take on Griffolyon when the older one turns nineteen, because it wasn't necessarily father to son. I can't find any information about the others, but I'd bet my hard drive that they're the same."

"So that's how it happened," Ray sighed. "Robert assumed it was just him. That... makes a lot of sense, knowing Robert. You'd think that someone might have said something, though."

But Dizzi disagreed. "No," she said. "You and your generation are incredibly unusual. The strength of your connection with your bit-beats for one... and your love of blading that is continuing into your adult years. From what I can see in the data, it was very unusual for anyone in previous generations to this one to keep their blade after their seventeenth birthday, even. So it's no surprise that no-one realised that the protection that the bit-beasts give fails after their blader turns nineteen. There simply wasn't anyone who kept their blade in the family and used it often enough to realise that the bit-beast was missing, except for the Majestics and their families."

"And they assumed they were special and superior," Kai cut in. "Like they always do."

"You got it!" Dizzi cheered. "So that's all there is to it."

The G-Revolutions stared at each other for a very long time in silence. "Hey," Tyson said at last. "Would any of you have guessed it was that easy?"

Ray shook his head. "No way," he said. "I'd have tried everything, but just _asking?_ It just sounds too simple. If no-one had told me, I couldn't have done it."

Once again, Dizzi spoke up. "I've just asked Dragoon and the others about it, and you know what they said? They said that of all their previous owners, no-one has ever been close enough to them to be able to call them back after they've gone. It takes a truly phenomenal bond, but you've got it."

"Then we've all been worrying for nothing!" Max chirruped, his blue eyes sparkling with renewed hope. "They'll never have to leave us, never."

"How could they ever truly leave you anyway?" Dizzi asked, her metallic voice gentle. "You're the only people in the world who love blading as much as they do."

Quite how Kai was managing to hide the smile that Tsubasa could see in his eyes, the Eagle's owner did not know. Tyson, Max and Ray had no such emotional reservations, and turned to their guests, smiles as dazzling as the sun lighting up their faces. "You hear that, Gingka?" Tyson laughed. "Take as long as you like to find Pegasus – me and Dragoon will be here whenever you want a battle!"

"Same to you, Kyouya," Ray challenged. "Don't think that because we're older, we're getting creaky!"

"Why'd we think that?" Yuu asked, tilting his head to one side. "You guys are awesome! Maxie beat me, remember? Only really cool people get to do that."

"Hehe, thanks, Yuu!"

"Excuse me!" Dizzi broke in pointedly. "Why don't you introduce me to your lovely new friends?"

"Sure!" Tyson exclaimed. "Hey, guys! Come meet Dizzi!"

.

Much later that night, Gingka was lying on his mattress on the floor of Tyson's room, listening to his host toss and turn as he tried to sleep. Between Daichi's pleading, Kenta's persistence and Yuu's wide green eyes, they had managed to persuade Max's father to let the three younger bladers all stay over at the shop with Max, Ray and Benkei, so Tyson and Gingka were the only ones in the house apart from Grandpa.

But tonight was different for another reason. Most nights, Tyson would be asleep and snoring before Gingka was even settled under the covers. Tonight, though, he was restless, sighing every few minutes as sleep evaded him. After about ten minutes of this, Gingka decided that enough was enough.

"Hey, Tyson?" he called softly. "What's up?"

There was a muffled sound of surprise, and then Tyson's head popped over the edge of his bed. "Oh? You're still awake. Sorry."

"Whatever. Something bothering you?"

"It was just all that talk of you going," Tyson said sadly. "Me and Daichi are gonna miss you."

Gingka stretched out on his mattress. "Yeah, me too. I can't believe the time has gone so fast. It's been so long since Battle Bladers..."

"Not long 'til the World Championships, though," Tyson pointed out. "I can't wait, and I'm not even taking part! It'll be fun finding out what it's like working behind the scenes."

"Yeah," Gingka agreed. "If I can't find Pegasus in time, I'll come and join you!"

"Awesome!" Tyson laughed. "We'll be the best WBBA officials in the world!"

"Deal!"

For a minute or two, there was a silence between the two of them. It wasn't the awkward silence that had filled the room on the first nights, when neither of them had known what to say, where to find common ground, or even if the whole idea of having the bladers with the metal beys staying with the G-Revolutions was going to work at all. Nor was it the deliberate, loaded silence of two people who had decided that yes, they _were_ going to try and sleep, and that they were _not_ going to talk any more. It wasn't even the silence that comes in the gaps in conversation, the sort of silence that wants to be filled before the atmosphere becomes too heavy or strange.

This silence was comfortable, the silence between good friends who no longer need words to communicate with each other, and could leave a sentence half-finished without worrying as they fell into sleep.

The sound that eventually broke the silence was one which had been the only constant throughout every single night that Tyson, Daichi and Gingka had shared this room in Tyson's house, so far away and so very different to Gingka's home, and yet which had so quickly become a second home to him.

"Good night, Gingka."

"Good night, Tyson."

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><p><em>The last two chapters are finished! So, one in three days time, and the epilogue a little after that. Consider it me making up for all the times that I said I'd be done in a week and then took a month.<em>


	26. Wolf

_After saying in the last chapter that there were only two more chapters... um, I changed my mind. Here's an extra one!_

_This is a gift for Luxraylover, who was the most consistent of all my reviewers in petitioning for Tala's bit-beast to return to him, and who also got the 100th review._

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><p><strong>Chapter 26 - Wolf<strong>

"You understand?"

"O-of course." Tala fought to remain in control of his breathing. "Perfectly."

The news had come as a complete shock, possibly an even worse one than the first. After all this time of feeling Wolborg brushing against the very edge of his mind, unable to get any closer, to discover that he could...

Kai was still on the other end of the phone. "Tala."

"Yes."

The phone at the other end clicked down. Kai knew that Tala would tell the others – there was no need to ask him. They understood each other so well still, Tala thought. But Kai could never understand him the way his ice-cold wolf had understood him.

_Wolborg._

Tala put the phone down in its cradle and stood up. This was no place for him to be right now.

"Hey, where're you off to, Tala?" Bryan called from the front room as Tala strode past the door, but the red-head ignored him. He wasn't important.

Tala didn't stop until he reached the park, heading automatically for the tree he usually ended up sitting under when the Blitzkrieg Boys decided to spend the day at the park (which happened a lot, as at least in the park any explosions of temper couldn't damage the walls).

How could something so simple work when nothing else had? Dizzi could be wrong – she might have been a bit-beast, but there was no evidence...

No! He pushed the doubts down as far as he could. He couldn't think about that. He _mustn't._ This was his one and only hope of getting Wolborg back.

Taking a deep breath, he steeped away from the tree, thankful that it was dusk, and the park was almost empty. This was a private thing, not for everyone to see.

_Wolborg?_

The wind moaned softly in his ears, but nothing else. Tala's shoulders sank.

_Please, Wolborg?_

He'd tried something like this when he had first realised his beautiful wolf had gone, and it hadn't worked. What was it that Kai had said? Reach out to them, and call them home...

Call them home? But where was home? The house that the Blitzkrieg Boys shared wasn't exactly a _home,_ not for them. They drifted like snow from city to city, staying only long enough to get bored before moving on. They'd only been in their current place for about two months. Tala had a bet on with Kai that they would change address before the end of five months. Kai was betting on four.

Where would a bit-beast's home be? In its blade, of course, but that didn't feel like the right answer.

_Wolborg, I could really use some help here, my friend._

Nothing. The wind had died down now, and the dusk was deepening into true night. If he stayed out too long, the others might come to look for him, and then what would they think of their strong captain, standing out in the cold staring at nothing, praying for his bit-beast's voice to echo once more in his heart and mind...

His _heart. _Of course_._

_Wolborg? Beautiful one? Come back. I don't care if it means you're not as powerful. I don't care if it means you can't blade with me as my bit-beast. I just want you back in my head, making all those silly comments about Wyborg and Seaborg and the others... I want you back with me. I've made my choice. It's... it's my turn to protect you now, friend._

The silence trembled around him, daring any sound to break it. Even Tala's breathing had stilled so that not even the slightest wisp of mist blew in front of his face. The world itself seemed to have stopped spinning.

And then, so suddenly that it nearly stopped his heart with its shock and beauty, he heard it.

_TALA!_

The voice exploded through every vein in his body, a howl, a song to the moon from the lost wolf finding the pack at last. _Tala! Tala! TALA!_

His mind filled with snow and ice, and glittering icicles under a starlit sky. Vast, open plains of white stretched before him, bordered by massive evergreens that stood majestic in their snow-covered loveliness. The wind howled around him, driving eddies of six-pointed snowflakes up into the dark night in great spirals – and bearing the cry of his wolf.

_Wolborg!_

The white-furred beast erupted from the horizon and crashed towards him, all but flying over the snow, ice-diamonds streaming out from his tail like some strange, broken necklace. Bigger than Tala remembered, more beautiful than he could have imagined, Wolborg didn't even slow a little bit as he neared his master, bowling him over into the ground, sending the snow flying around them in waves like those that crashed against the shores in warmer places.

_Wolborg!_ It was the only thing he could think of, the only word spinning through his brain. _Oh Wolborg, you came back..._

The White Wolf's tail lashed at the ice, a constant stream of soft yips and whines pouring from his open, smiling mouth. With his beautiful bit-beast's two front paws planted firmly on his chest, there was nothing Tala could do except laugh as Wolborg nudged his cold, black nose against Tala's cheek and then licked his face.

_Oh Wolborg, I called you – why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you respond?_

_My Tala._

Tala swallowed the rest of his questions along with the strange lump in his throat, and reached up and wrapped his arms around his ice-wolf's neck, burying his face in the soft, cold fur. _Wolborg._

_Tala. Tala. Tala._

It wasn't a name any more, but a song, lilting with the howl of the wolf who was wrapping himself around Tala's heart and mind once again. Who cared whether Wolborg could still drive the blade named after him again? Who cared about the long list of unanswered questions that might never be resolved now – like who was stronger, him or Bryan? Who cared about anything except that his wolf was back, that he could never lose him again?

That he would never have to be alone with his own thoughts ever again?

_I will never leave you,_ they promised, ice flying through their voices.

_And I will never let you,_ they swore, snow reflecting in their eyes.

He didn't even notice that the water on his face was no longer just from the melting snow.

_Tala._


	27. The Winds of Change

_Yep, two uploads on the same story in 24 hours... the one and only time this will ever happen__. Last proper chapter!  
><em>

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><p><strong>Chapter 27 – The Winds Of Change<strong>

_In which we say farewell_

Tyson hopped out of the minibus and unlocked the luggage compartment as the others clambered down. It was Thursday, the very last day that the visiting bladers were going to be with them, and so Grampa Granger had agreed to drive everyone to the airport, giving them all one last chance to be together.

"Hello!" said a surprised but familiar voice from behind him. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Oh, hey Garland," Tyson said with a smile, straightening up. "You seeing Ryuga off?"

"No," Garland replied, stepping back to let Kyouya pass him and grab his bag. "He left two days ago, actually, heading for some remote mountain place somewhere. He said he needed to get back into training, so off he went Tuesday morning. Brooklyn said he was looking for a volcano or something like that. I was here to drop off Mystel, actually. He's gone back home to visit his parents for a week."

"Cool," Tyson said, grabbing Kenta's bag and throwing it to him. "You going to miss him? Ryuga, I mean?"

Garland shrugged. "In a way," he said. "I won't miss the chaos he seemed to love causing by challenging Brooklyn all the time, but... he was an excellent blader, no matter what he might have done in the past. It was good to meet him. I think Brooke and Mystel will miss him more than me, but then again they thrive on pandemonium. Hiro was almost despairing of the three of them at one point."

"Hmm," Tyson frowned. "It seems so stupid having to ask, but where _is_ Hiro? He hasn't been answering my texts, and Grampa wants to know if he'll be back for his birthday."

"Oh, he's gone off to see Ming-Ming and Crusher," Garland explained. "He'll be back in a fortnight or so – he just wanted to check that they're keeping up with training."

"Brooklyn will be a bit lonely in the house with just you, won't he?"

Garland actually laughed. "That's the thing, Tyson. Brooke's not in the house either. He went with Ryuga. They're going to train together."

Silence rippled between them as Tyson's expression changed to one of pure shock. "Ryuga persuaded _Brooklyn_ to go training? Our Brooklyn? Our "I don't need to train because I'm a natural" Brooklyn?"

"Yep," Garland smiled. "Brooklyn and Ryuga, off training in the wilds together. Who knew?" Then he laughed again. "But Brooke'll be back soon if I know him – he's a creature of habit if nothing else."

"Whatever happens, it should be interesting," Tsubasa said, ducking past Garland to pull his rucksack out of the luggage compartment. "I've never known Ryuga to allow anyone to follow him before. Brooklyn must be even more remarkable than I had heard."

"He understands the darkness," Garland said, his voice betraying how distant his thoughts were. "There aren't many who do. And if Ryuga is going to gain full command of L-Drago – don't give me that look; you know as well as I do that he's not in complete control – that's the one thing he'll need to learn. How to defeat the darkness."

Tyson rolled his eyes and changed the subject. "Have you got any plans for later on this year? Me and the G-Revs are splitting up to go to our places for the World Championships, but it'd be cool to see you there."

"The G-Revolutions and _I_," Garland automatically corrected. "No, I don't have any plans. I'm assisting the WBBA in financing the whole thing, so I can't go hopping around in case they need me."

"That's not very friendly," Ray said, having overheard. "You'd think that they would give you VIP passes to the matches or something."

Garland shrugged. "I've got lots to be getting on with, anyway," he said. "Who knows? I might end up assisting the new Director or something like that! Hold on, let me give you a hand with that." He reached past Tyson to help Madoka pull her red suitcase out of the luggage compartment. "When does your plane leave?"

"Four," Madoka told him. "We need to get moving if we're going to get through everything."

"Has everyone got their stuff?" Ray called to the rest of the group, who were standing out of the way on the pavement. "Good – let's go, then!"

Garland, however, took a step in the other direction. "I need to get home," he apologised. "But it's been a privilege to meet you all. I'm sure you'll do well in the World Championships – you're all excellent bladers. I'll do my best to watch your matches."And with a slight bow, he turned to walk off.

"Say bye to Brooklyn for me!" Yuu called after him. "I'm gonna miss him!"

"Of course!" Garland called back. "I'm sure he'd have said the same if he was here!"

"Bye!" Gingka shouted. "It was nice meeting you! And thanks for putting up with Ryuga!"

Garland didn't answer, but they could all hear him laughing as he walked away. Kenta glanced at his watch.

"Let's get going," he said. "We don't want to miss the plane."

.

The main hall of the airport was bustling, as usual, but the group of bladers were quick to find a secluded corner to wait for their plane where no-one was going to fall over them. So there they all were, standing in a huddle around the hand-luggage and wondering what on earth they should say.

"It'll be good to get home and see Dad," Gingka said at last. "I mean, it's been nearly two months now."

Tyson laughed. "My dad disappears for months at a time," he said. "He's an archaeologist, and he's always away on digs and stuff. He's not due home until Christmas."

"Christmas!" Kenta exclaimed. "That's a long time."

A shrug was his answer. "I'm used to it," Tyson replied. "And anyway, I've got all my friends, and Hiro's just on the other side of town – or he would be if he wasn't off visiting Ming-Ming and Crusher – and of course there's Gramps. It's just how it is."

Gingka was still staring at the luggage. "I thought my dad was dead until a couple of days before we flew out here," he said. "I thought..."

Tyson knew him well enough by now to understand what that pause meant, and didn't bother to fill it. No-one else did, either, and so the silence stretched on and on uncomfortably until Yuu suddenly piped up "Hey! Do you guys remember what it was like when we first arrived? We had all those arguments about bit-chips and face-bolts and stuff!"

"Oh yeah!" Max laughed. "That was so strange. All that stuff about how no proper bey could have any plastic in it! And remember when you thought Dragoon was L-Drago?"

Gingka was smiling. "Well, they did look pretty similar. Oh, and all those times that we were talking about Tsubasa or Kyouya and you thought we were talking about Kai, and the other way round!"

Tyson burst out laughing. "That was brilliant," he said. "You know, I still think that they're related. Just listen to their voices! They must be cousins at least."

"We are not!" Tsubasa protested, but no-one paid any attention, not even Kai.

"Maybe Kai just rubs off on people," Gingka suggested. "Hey, Tyson, is Grampa ever going to fill in that bey-dish Yuu made in the garden when we were having that argument about what size was the proper one?"

"Nah," Tyson shrugged. "He'll turn it into some sort of water feature or plant trees in it or something." Then he did a double-take, and a look of delight spread across his face. "Hey! You called him Grampa instead of Mr Granger! You're one of us now!"

"He wasn't already?" Max asked, and something in his voice said that he wasn't trying to be silly.

Ray agreed. "You know, Tyson, I think any of them would make a great addition to the G-Revolution team, if it ever had to restart again. They're all one of us now."

"Of course they are," Daichi exclaimed. "I want dibs on Yuu and Kenta! We'll take on Gingka and Tyson any day!"

Kenta looked slightly alarmed, but Yuu perked up immediately. "Yeah, and then we'll go up against Kyo-yo and Ben-ben and Maxie and Kai and Ray and Tsubasa and..."

"Whoa!" Ray laughed. "You sound like you're planning a whole tournament already!"

"Guys," Max said quietly. "In all seriousness, we owe you everything. If you hadn't come here, if your constellations hadn't been there to rise with the bit-beasts, then Dizzi wouldn't have woken up and told us how to get our bit-beasts to stay."

"Yeah," Tyson nodded. "Thanks. You have no idea how much that means to us – to all of us."

Gingka shrugged awkwardly. "It's not as if we did it deliberately..." he began, but then laughed. "But we'd have done it sooner if we'd known it would help!"

There were answering nods from the other visiting bladers. "Besides," Kyouya said to Ray, "You'd have done the same for us in our positions. We're all bladers, after all."

"That's right," Ray agreed. "And we always will be. Who cares about silly little details like what we call stuff? It's all the same in the end – we're true bladers, and it's the spirit of the game that counts."

"Yeah!" Tyson and Gingka chorused, then looked at each other and burst out laughing again. Kai shook his head.

"You two are so predictable," he muttered.

Yuu moved until he was next to Ray, and then suddenly hugged him. "I'm really going to miss all of you," he said, voice muffled in Ray's coat. "It's been amazing to get to meet all of you and to learn your ways of doing things - I mean, you're like legends where we come from."

Ray smiled and returned the embrace. "Then you should get a move on," he smiled. "Get out there and make your own legends. But you'll always be welcome back here. Hey – we should make a week every year when you all come over!"

"Just a week?" Daichi asked. "Why not two weeks? A month!"

"A month!" Kai was spluttering in the background as Tyson and Max jumped on the idea.

"Yeah! We could show you our training facility in the mountains and go to the beach and stuff!"

"It'd be great – we could catch up and have awesome battles every year, like a kind of mini Championship! We'll use your dishes so it'll be even better, and we can learn even more about _your_ ways of battling."

"Maybe Hikaru could come next time," Kenta suggested.

"And when Gingka's got Pegasus back he can have a proper battle with Tyson," Madoka piped up.

Gingka nodded. "Definitely. I'll have to find him first, but that'd be amazing."

"It's settled, then," Ray said with confidence. "We can hammer out the details later." He smiled around at all of the younger bladers who were now stepping up to take on the mantle of Team Japan. He couldn't think of anyone he would rather entrust the World Championship to. And if there was ever a time when the G-Revolutions had to face some terrible challenger like BEGA again, there was no-one that Ray would prefer to have his back. After all, who could possibly stand against a united front presented by the strongest bladers from both the BBA and the WBBA?

Kyouya looked up at the departures board. "Hey, guys," he said. "Our plane's about to be called – we... we should get going."

There was a moment of heavy silence. This was it. This, at long last, was goodbye.

Finally Kenta, ever-cheerful, said "We'll see you all really soon, though. Straight after the World Championships are over, we'll invite you all round and you can stay at our place for a while. It'll be awesome."

"Yeah, really awesome," echoed Gingka. "I can't wait to show you all the new stadium they're building!"

"Well, we might see some of you before then," Ray told him. "After all, as we're going to be WBBA officials, we'll be watching the World Championships."

"True," Yuu grinned. "But we'll give you a guided tour of the stadium and everything so it won't be boring and stinky."

"Will there be ice-cream?" Daichi asked, ever practical.

"Of course!" chorused Yuu, Kenta and Gingka.

Kai suddenly took a step to the side, separating himself from the group, and beckoned Tsubasa over. "Remember your lessons, Tsubasa," he said softly. "Keep your eyes and ears sharp, and never, ever lower your guard. Never stop noticing everything around you, and exclude..."

"Exclude nothing, including yourself, in your analysis of the situation." Tsubasa chorused with him. "I will, Kai."

"One more thing, Tsubasa." Kai's arms were folded defensively across his chest, and his expression was grim. "Never let the desire to win overpower your _spirit_. Your mind, yes, but never let winning be your only reason for battling. It takes all the joy out of blading, and you can so easily lose yourself."

Realising from the uncharacteristic words just how serious he was, Tsubasa nodded silently.

"Good," said Kai. Then he paused. It wasn't until the correct plane was announced that he finally said "Take care, Tsubasa. I trust you."

It was the highest praise he had ever given Tsubasa, and the Eagle blader almost glowed with happiness as he picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. Yuu attached himself to Tsubasa's shadow, constantly looking back to wave at Daichi as the two of them walked through the departures gate.

Benkei picked up both his and Kenta's bags in one hand and then paused to say goodbye to Max, who hugged him briefly before turning to give the same to Kenta. Ray, looking slightly sheepish, put a hand into his pocket and pulled out a bag.

"These are some of the fruits that grow around my village in China," he said, handing the bag to Kenta. "They only grow in very remote mountain areas, and the people who know where they grow guard them fiercely, so you won't get them anywhere else. There's enough here for one each. Share them out when you get home and remember us when you eat them, won't you?"

Kenta took the bag of fruit with great solemnity and gave Ray a huge smile and a fierce hug. "We'll remember you anyway," he said. "But thanks for these. I'm sure they'll be delicious."

"As long as they don't bruise, and you eat them when they're golden, they will be," Ray told them. "Bye, Kenta. Bye, Benkei. We'll see you soon, I'm sure."

"Best of luck in the World Championships," Max chipped in. "Keep up the win streak for us!"

"Sure will," Gingka said, swinging his rucksack onto his back. "Just you wait. I'm going to find out where my Pegasus has gone, and then I'll be in it for sure."

"Thanks for Leone, Chief," Kyouya said. "I owe you big time for that."

Kenny grinned. "Though if you break him, you'll have to come back so that I can fix it!"

"Oh, I reckon I could do something," Madoka protested. "It can't be that hard." Kenny backed down very quickly before Hilary could get involved.

"Bye, guys!" Tyson called as the rest of the travellers headed through the departure gates. "We'll miss you!"

"Write soon!" Daichi yelled to Kenta, who waved enthusiastically. "I wanna hear all about your brand new stadium and the World Championships and everything!"

"Sure thing!" Kenta called back. Tsubasa, in front, was almost out of sight, but he held one fist up in salute. Yuu jumped up and down, still waving at Daichi.

"We'll see you soon," Gingka promised as he got his passport and tickets ready. "I can't wait!"

"Bye!"

"Bye!"

"Have a safe trip!"

"We'll miss you!"

"Thanks for having us!"

"See you soon!"

"Goodbye!"

The calls died away slowly, leaving the G-Revolutions standing in the otherwise empty departures lounge. They looked at each other, a heavy silence descending.

"Well," said Tyson at last. "That was _much_ more fun than spending the summer in the mountains."

* * *

><p><em>The winds of change blow, <em>

_And the old world will not remain_

_Separate we are vulnerable_

_Together we may hope to conquer the shadow_

* * *

><p><em>.<br>_

_So, the final epilogue will come on the 27th of January, because I have a thing about anniversaries and that will mean that this fic is finished exactly one year after it was started!_

_For various reasons, I'm going to do the standard thanking here – you are all amazing. Right, now you've read that, you can skip the rest of this ridiculously long Author's Note if you want..._

_If you've been following this since 27/01/2012, you have amazing patience with me and my various bouts of Too Many Projects/writer's block/giving-up-fanfic-for-Lent/university work etc. If you have just read the whole thing in one go, I salute your stamina to get through this 80,000 word epic. _

_But that's not the point. The point is, the story wouldn't be what it is without you - literally. The reviewer requests to put the Blitz Boys in became the catalyst for the bit-beast story arc. The request for other Metal Fight teams sparked the elevation of Tala to WBBA agent (which in turn helped push the story along and let me write another chapter with my beloved BEGA boys). _

_So if you're reviewing another one of my stories and want something to happen in it, then I'll certainly listen to the idea. The worst that can happen is that I won't be able to fit it in, because I'll have planned the entire story like a good little author – but at best you might change the entire story because I like it so much._

_However, I cannot promise anything regarding a sequel to this fic at the moment. For one thing, I've been putting off a lot of other fics for the sake of finishing this one, ones which I have been geniunely looking forward to writing. For another, I can't think of any way to continue this in a sensible way with any form of decent plot, as all of the overarching conflict from this one - the differences between the old and new bladers - has been wrapped up. Without conflict, there is no story, not really.  
><em>

_The only thing I can say is that one of the fics that I am trying to write (and have been putting off for the sake of finishing this one) is a new Metal Fight/Beyblade crossover, co-written with my lovely and loyal reviewer _brave kid,_ that is not set in the same crossover world as To Learn Their Ways, but will involve some of the Metal Masters characters for certain. It isn't really a sequel (as I said, it's a different crossover), but for those who just want to see the Masters characters, they'll be in there. That is the best that I can promise right now.  
><em>

_I hope to see you all again on whatever project I next take up, and once again thank you so much for your phenomenal response to this crossover. I know that crossovers are less popular than standard fics, so to get over 120 reviews is beyond my wildest dreams. As sad as I am to have to bring this fic to a close, it's been an adventure and a half. Thank you all for making the journey so much more fun._

_Juniper_


	28. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

_In which letters are written_

* * *

><p><em>Dear Tyson,<em>

_Thank you very much for looking after me whilst I was waiting for Dad to finish up stuff in our city so I could go home. Everyone's in a much better mood in our village now that we know L-Drago is under control – well, more under control, anyway. Hokuto said to me this morning that he never thought to live to see the day when he was _glad_ L-Drago wasn't under our mountain, but Dad just laughed at him._

_ Hey, did you hear? You remember that Dad's going to be the new Director of the WBBA (That'll be a laugh...) like Tala told us? Well, my friend Hikaru – the one I was telling you about AAAAGES ago – she'll be joining him as assistant. We wanted her to come and blade again, but she said she'd rather not, for now._

_ Are you going to actually be at any of the battles in the World Championships that the WBBA are hosting? It'd be cool to see you there, and battle you too - oh yeah, I've got a new Pegasus! Galaxy Pegasus. It's really amazing - I can't wait to use it against you! If not, you're welcome in Koma Village any time, as long as you can persuade Hyoma to let you in._

_ Anyway, that's a lot of questions, so I'll stop writing now,_

_ Gingka_

_.  
><em>

_Dear Gingka,_

_ Only enough room here for answers, so you're welcome, good, really, no, awesome, oh well, no, I have to be working for the WBBA in a different stadium all the time, wish I could come, wow, that sounds cool, can't wait to battle you too, thanks, I'll see if I have time, yes it was a lot of questions. _

_ Tyson_

_.  
><em>

_Dear Tyson,_

_ Of all the things I could say to that, I'll just stick to "Your handwriting is dreadful." _

_ Gingka_

_.  
><em>

_Dear Gingka,_

_ So is yours_

_ Tyson_

_.  
><em>

_Dear Tyson,_

_ Shut up_

_ G_

_.  
><em>

_Dear G,_

_ I don't think I've ever had a written argument with someone before, let alone an insulting match. This is quite fun. I get to ask Kai about creative insults before I write them, you bowl of pigswill (teehee)._

_ T_

_.  
><em>

_Dear T,_

_ Bowl of pigswill is the best he can come up with, that cantankerous moron? Hokuto is so much better at it, you three-legged monkey with no fingers!  
><em>

_ G_

_.  
><em>

_Dear G,_

_ The cantankerous moron is deeply offended and suggests that three monkeys with no fingers or toes can at least beyblade better than a lapdog with an inflated ego..._

_ T_

_.  
><em>

_Dear T,_

_ Write address clearer next time_

_ Garland Siebolt_

* * *

><p><em>Dear Kenny,<em>

_ Benkei said if I didn't write he'd confiscate Leone. So I'm writing, just in case he actually manages to come up with a way to do so. Please tell him this._

_ Kyouya_

_.  
><em>

_Dear Benkei,_

_ Please give Leone back,_

_ Kenny_

_.  
><em>

_Kenny,_

_ Thanks_

_ K._

* * *

><p><em>Dear Hilary,<em>

_ Hope your new bey is doing okay. Remember to get him tuned up regularly or you'll never last! Just watch out for dirt getting in between the layers. Hope you teach all your boys a good lesson next time, though you shouldn't tell them how stupid they look in hard-hats just yet. Makes for more amusement later; you following me?_

_ Yuu says he can't be bothered to write, but he'll come and say hi next time he's anywhere near you. Watch out for huge pillars of light, and remember to wave back._

_ Anyway, hope to see you again soon,_

_ Madoka_

* * *

><p><em>Dear Kai,<em>

_ Tsubasa_

(This letter was found mostly burned in Kai's fireplace. The only legible parts have been reproduced. The contents remain a mystery to this day)

_.  
><em>

_Dear Agent E,_

_ You idiot, next time don't use proper names!_

_ Agent P_

_.  
><em>

_Dear "Agent P",_

_ I'm not sure what's going on, but you're taking this a bit too far, methinks_

_ Tsubasa_

_.  
><em>

_Dear Agent E (who is under no circumstances called Tsubasa),_

_ If that was in code, it was a very bad code. _

_ Agent P_

_.  
><em>

_Dear "Agent P",_

_ Seriously, Kai, this is getting stupid. And what's all this about codes and secret names and whatever? If you don't explain, I'll... I'll set Yuu on you._

_ Tsubasa (who is under no circumstances called Agent E) _

_.  
><em>

_Dear Tsubasa,_

_ Please ignore the letters you received earlier. Tala and Bryan got hold of my writing desk and my post and wouldn't give it back until I persuaded Ian to return Wolborg and Falborg's blades to their respective owners. They have both been far too excitable since they found out they could get their bit-beasts back, which explains part of it, I suppose. For some reason, they seem to have muddled up the concepts of "special agent" and "secret agent". Too much James Bond, I suspect. _

_ Kai_

_P.S. Please don't set Yuu on them either, as I'll only have to clean up the mess afterwards. And if he eats all Tala's ice-cream again, I cannot be held responsible for how many pieces he may or may not return home in._

* * *

><p><em>Dear Max and Ray,<em>

_ Thought I'd send you a letter to say thanks for looking after me and Benkei over the summer. Benkei would have too, but you know that new special move he was working on just before we left? He tried it out on Kyouya and got his wrist sprained, so he can't write. _

_ Anyway, my training with Sagittario is going really well. I'll use it to try to get into the World Championships. Team Japan is definitely going to win! We'll keep up the Japanese win streak, we promise! It'd be great to see you there, even though you're not competing._

_ Thanks again for everything,_

_ Kenta_

_.  
><em>

_Dear Kenta,_

_ Sure, we'll try our best to watch all your battles live (I know I can speak for Max, Tyson and Daichi too, though Kai's arm may have to be twisted). Look out for us in unexpected places – I think Kai's planning to work in the Russian stadium, and I've just been told that I've been posted to the Chinese one, so just keep an eye out in all the tournaments. We'll be cheering for all of you!_

_ Hope we'll see you again soon. Things sure are quiet here without you lot running around. Even Kai and Brooklyn (who came back about three weeks ago looking pretty beat up but really happy – something about "borrowing" L-Drago again, I think...) are being reasonably civil to each other, which is a surprise. No attacks of evil bit-beasts or megalomaniacs – nothing. Just teaching the youngsters in the WBBA and the BBA, fixing our blades, teaching the youngsters, fixing their blades, teaching the youngsters... It's actually kind of boring. Seriously, if someone made a TV series of the lives of the Blade-breakers, bet they'd have pulled it by now. Compared to what we used to get up to, it's pathetic. You sound like you're getting up to much more interesting stuff. _

_ I'm getting off topic. Driger says hi to Sagittario and Bull. Oh, and Max has just told me that he'll be in America during the World Championships, so if Team Japan needs anything whilst you're there, just look him up – he'll be happy to help._

_ Best of luck,_

_ Ray_

* * *

><p><em>Dear Brooklyn,<em>

_ I don't normally write letters, and I'm certainly not writing this one for anything stupid like trying to stay in touch. I'm only doing this to warn you that if you ever try to take my L-Drago from me again**,** I will tear the earth apart to find you. You know that I can. _

_ Ryuga_

_.  
><em>

_Dear Ryuga,_

_ Loved the irony of your letter, as you sent L-Drago to carry it and he's decided to stay. However, you can keep Poseidon for a bit. Mystel will miss him, but no-one else will. Hope he didn't get this letter too wet carrying it – he is a water-god, after all._

_ Brooklyn._

_.  
><em>

_Dear Ryuga,_

_ Strange that you haven't come to pick up L-Drago yet. Am puzzled by this – I thought you liked him. Please stop by and try to rescue him. It amuses me when you try, particularly as he's decided he likes me more._

_ Brooklyn._

_.  
><em>

_Dear Ryuga,_

_ Okay, okay, I lied about L-Drago liking me more. He's still yours. I just want to battle you again. _NOW _will you come and get L-Drago?_

_ Brooklyn_

_.  
><em>

_Dear Ryuga,_

_ Pretty please?_

_ Brooklyn_

_.  
><em>

_Dear Ryuga,_

_ Garland's just told me that I'm in big trouble. Apparently bit-beasts aren't meant to be used as postmen. Please would you give back Poseidon, Metal Driger, Gigars and Venus? Oh, and Apollon, as I've had to send him with this letter._

_ Brooklyn_

_.  
><em>

_Dear Ryuga,_

_ As you can see, I've sent back L-Drago. Please give back everyone's bit-beasts. I know it's what you like doing, stealing everyone's power, but I'm the one in trouble for it as we've only just sorted out the problem of getting them back after our nineteenth birthdays. I've even sent Zeus with this, so if you keep him I'll be really upset. And you'll probably be unbeatable. And I really shouldn't have written that._

_ Brooklyn_

_.  
><em>

(four days later, arriving in the usual post)

_Dear Brooklyn,_

_ Thanks for Zeus. For future reference, normal post works just as well as bit-beast post, if a bit slower, and you don't lose everyone's bit-beasts into the process. Thanks again,_

_ Ryuga_

* * *

><p><em>Dear Brooklyn,<em>

_ What exactly have you done with Dragoon?_

_ Tyson_


End file.
